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This brief article is designed to give
you a quick overview of how e-commerce works. Here we go...
(article continued below ...)
1. Website
- Your online connection to your prospects and customers. There are a number of
places on the web to get "free" websites - although you may be
required to display an advertisement. The design of your site is critical to the
success of your business! If it does not look like a professional, legitimate
business - NO ONE WILL ORDER ANYTHING - no matter how great the products you
have. If you are serious about doing business on the web, either go back to
school and learn html, java, cgi, etc., or hire a professional to design your
site.
2. Merchant
account - Bank authorized account which allows you to accept major
credit cards, electronic checks, etc. Many banks will not give you a merchant
account if you do business on the Internet because they may classify it as high
risk. Be careful when looking for a merchant account provider! Watch out for
hidden fees, high setup fees, and other unscrupulous business practices.
3. Payment
Transaction Software - Software which actually processes customer
order information, address, credit card number, etc. The data is sent to a
credit card authorization network which verifies that the credit card is valid
and verifies that the shipping address matches the billing address. A possible
warning sign that the card has been stolen is that the billing and shipping
addresses do not match.
4.
Secure
Server Connection - https:// - Link to a special computer which
encrypts confidential ordering data for customer protection. You know you are on
a secure server when the URL in your browser says "https://". The
"s" stands for "secure." If ordering information is not sent
via a secure server it can be intercepted by computer hackers.
5.
Shopping
cart - Software which allows you to accept product orders for
multiple products from your website. This software automatically calculates and
totals orders for your customers. Some setup must be done in the html code of
your website, and the shopping cart software must be installed on the server
which hosts your site or on the secure server which accepts sensitive ordering
information.
That's it!
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