E-Commerce Sites

Often when people think of e-commerce, they think of an online website like Amazon or Ebay where you are able to purchase every type of product imaginable. But an e-commerce website can be as simple as promoting a book that you have written and having a Paypal link where your site vistors are able to purchase your item.

An e-commerce website can be as simple or elaborate as you want it to be. There are all types of shopping cart solutions that will enable a website owner to sell items or services on a website. E-commerce sites will usually cost more than a standard website because of the additional work involved and the different pieces that have to fit together to make the site work properly.

E-commerce Website Process

There is general e-commerce process for a website where purchases can be made:

• The customer selects the item(s) and adds to shopping cart
• The Checkout page will collect the buyer's information - username, email - this varies. (Usually a customer will be asked to sign in or "create an account"
• The merchant forwards the transaction details to their payment gateway. That information is then processed through this secure, SSL (secure socket layer)
• More detailed information is requesting - payment method, shipping and billing addresses
• The customer then clicks to make the actual purchase
• The funds are then deposited into a merchant account. This account can be Internet-based or the seller's actual bank where s/he has a merchant account

There are more details involved but this is the general concept. Some of the terms above may be unfamiliar. The most important aspect of any transaction online is security. Buyers want to be sure that the personal information that they are providing for a purchase is protected and cannot be stolen. This is what a SSL certificate is for - or a secure layer socket is used by web servers and browsers to assist users in protecting their data during an online transfer. There are many companies that provide SSL certificates. A few of the more well known are:

• Comodo
• Digicert
• GoDaddy
• Verisign
• Network Solutions
• GeoTrust

Once the order has been processed and the purchase made, the funds have to be deposited into a merchant account. There are also many merchant account providers. You can use an online solution or you can contact the bank where you conduct business and ask for their merchant account services for websites. You will be given the information that will needed for this part of the process. There are many types of merchant accounts such as retail, wireless, mail order, Internet - the one that you may be most interested as a website / blog owner. Some of the more popular Internet merchant account providers are:

• Merchant Accounts Express
• American Express
• Electronic Transfer
• Charge.com
• Paynet Systems
• ...and many others

In making your selection, you will want to compare the discount rate, transaction fees, gateway fees, statement fees, monthly minimums and startup fees. Some companies offer no setup fees while others do. Transaction fees can vary quite a bit from company to company. A useful website that compares merchant account providers is Merchant Account Guide. But remember that your best solution may be your bank where you conduct business. Most banks have great merchant account products and promotions for current customers...and sometimes the shmoozing to get new business can make the deals offered to you even sweeter!