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Ecommerce:
Ecommerce is simply the
ability to do business transactions on line with your
website.
There are several steps required to do this and we
will outline in a simple flow.
1. A shopping cart or
order form on your web site.
2. SSL to accept payments at checkout securely.
3. A merchant account to accept payments with
processing agent to transfer the funds into your bank
account.
1. There are many
types of shopping carts. For just a few products this
may just be an order form that visitors select the
product, enter there information, billing information
and submit it. The next level would be a simple
shopping cart where you have products on your site
with buy buttons. More developed ecommerce carts can
handle thousands of products and are database driven
to handle easy maintenance of your products. There
are many services that do this for you on their
websites such as paypal and Yahoo. They can provide
all of the steps above. For the beginner it may be
tough to implement and you might need a programmer to
assist.
2, SSL (secure Socket
Layer). This is a must. It provides a secure
encrypted means of the data you fill in the order
form to prevent theft. Whenever you order from a web
site be sure that the LOCK icon shows up on your
browser before you submit any critical information
such as SSN# or CC data.
3. Merchant Account /
Processing Agent. This is a provider that accepts
your order information, processes the payment from
the visitor and transfers the funds from the
purchaser into your bank account (typically business
accounts)
There are hundreds of
companies that provide these services, vary in
technical installation, professionalism, fees charges
to you, and the ability to maintain your products.
Some of these services can be complicated to
interface with a web site and still give the
appearance that you are doing business with you.
We deal mostly with
business ecommerce and not personal ecommerce web
sites.
For personal web sites
you can do it yourself by using Paypal or Yahoo's
shopping carts on their websites.
For business needs we
recommend that you have your shopping cart on your
web site so it is self contained. Thus you are not
locked into paying for someone else's service forever
and if you leave your hosting provider you take your
ecommerce solution with you.
You will need a
business bank account with a merchant account.
We recommend authorize.net as your processing agent
as they are the easiest to interface with for
real-time transactions and also provide a web based
entry where you can enter orders manually.
We deal only with
ecommerce solutions built into your web sites with
easy administration of your products thru SSL.
Merchant accounts are
plentiful. Your first stop for information should be
your local bank where you have your business account.
Fees for merchant accounts are hard to understand as
they have many fees for different aspects of
transactions. They can include:
2-4% of transaction
Each item fee $.20-.40
Out of country fees for CC's such as Canada, Mexico,
etc.
A base fee.
All of these fees vary
by merchant provider and most are resellers of the
big 6 merchant firms.
There are also other
payment solutions now such as pay by check.
We discuss what your
needs are and your future growth to insure that the
solution we provide to you will accommodate your
needs.
Call Us to
discuss your needs at:
800-860-0044
or fill out this quick form
and we will contact you shortly.
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