So you’ve decided to streamline your web store’s ordering process but don’t want to use any shopping cart system, or don’t want to spend money on e-Commerce solutions yet. Google Docs offers a free way to collect orders efficiently with a very simple setup. First create a Google Docs account if you don’t already have one.
1. Click on ‘Create New’ > ‘Form’ on the upper left corner of the screen. Google Docs comprises of a suite of various tools, but you will want to use the ‘Form’ tool as you want to create an online order form, naturally.
2. You will be taken to a new screen where you can edit the form. Give the form a title (ie ‘Online Order Form’) followed by any instructions you want your customer to follow. By clicking on the ‘Edit’ button which looks like a pencil, you can change the question title and type. Enter the options you want made available to your customer.
3. Continue adding relevant questions as needed.
4. Once done, click on ‘Save’. Click on the link at the bottom of the screen to view your completed form.
5. That’s all there is? To see if it works (it probably does), fill in the form and click on ‘Submit’. You should arrive at this page. Google Docs tells the customer that his response will now appear in the form owner’s spreadsheet.
6. So how do you access your spreadsheet? Simple, just go back to the Google Docs home screen and click on ‘Online Order Form’. This is a spreadsheet that holds all customer order submissions. I forgot to include an ‘Email’ question but you probably want to include that so you can contact your customer.
That’s it! No frills, simple way to collect your orders and store there systematically in a spreadsheet. No messy emails orders!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is great and I’ve been using it. The major problem, however is that the individual making the order does not get a total or any kind of receipt. It would be great to be able to set this up so that the individual gets their info back.
I’m a teacher and I assign homework using this as well and once they click submit if they haven’t saved it, it is gone.
Hi Brian thanks for commenting
Yep the drawback is there is no way the moment (I think), to calculate any totals / get a receipt with customised totals or info on the fly. Perhaps Google will improve on this in the future.
Great to hear that you are finding it useful in the field of education/pedagogy, cheers.