how do they do it

[rmanbike]

I wont to sell a product that is customizable online. For example the product starts out it its basic form and the customer would choose from different options to build their own personal product. So it would start with a set of choices and from their each step would led to a different outcome and price, that based upon the choices made along the way. I am new to web design so not sure the term to use to descibe. But I see a number of websites that are selling their products in this way. One good example is contained in this link: http://www.bassettfurniture.com/tools/custom-upholstery/index2.asp:)

Many thanks for everyones suggestions

[rmanbike]

Sorry but the link should be http://www.bassettfurniture.com/tools/custom-upholstery/index.asp

[dms]

Over my head, but you may want to ask this question here.... http://www.killersites.com/forums/forum/15/asp/

[falkencreative]

In most cases, this is done using a pre-existing ecommerce platform like Magento, osCommerce, etc. Most ecommerce websites use a system to manage their products/track orders/take care of the checkout process, rather than having a web designer handcoding everything from scratch.

[newseed]

What you are looking for is called Built To Order or BTO that many commercial commerce sofware use that allows customers to configure a product to their specification. Here is one we did that use this feature. Just click on "SOLIDWAVE/PC CONFIGURE YOUR OWN SYSTEM NOW".

 

I do not know if Magento or osCommerce uses such tools but the chances are that you are not going to build something like this with the skillset you have now. You will need to find one that has this functionallity built in within the shopping cart. ProductCart is what we used but it does come with a price.