| Please Select:
Whatever Your Need |
 ECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS The two most important parts of a business website are
(1) the system by which you allow your users to view/order your
products and services, and (2) the system by which you allow your users
to pay for a product.
WEBster Computing Services offers comprehensive solutions
for any commercial need, including interactive shopping cart
setup/maintenance, new payment system setup, merchant account setup, as
well as the integration of current payment systems you may already be
using. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
WHAT YOU NEED | SOME EXAMPLES | CARTS AND PAYMENT SYSTEMS The first step to establishing any ecommerce system is to sit back and decide what you need. This can be confusing because there are a number of parts to an ecommerce system (your website host (us), your shopping cart, and your payment processor) . To that end we have assembled a list of questions which will help you determine the best course of action for you. We assume for the purposes of these questions that you at minimum want to accept credit cards for payment. Question One: If you do accept credit cards off-line you will probably be able to use your current system for your internet needs (see question two). If you don't accept credit cards then we recommend the following third party services who can set you up with a merchant account (ems2000.com, Authorize.Net, iTransact). EMS2000 will set you up to process credit cards off-line in the traditional way (you will enter credit card numbers for your clients off the internet) and the other two services will set you up to process credit cards online in real-time on the internet. Question Two: This is a confusing question to most. You might assume that because you do business on the internet you need to process credit cards directly over the internet. This is not true. If you process credit cards off-line (i.e. through EMS2000.com) this is fine for doing business on the internet. People ordering on the internet simply send you their credit card number via a secure page and then you charge them off-line at your convenience via a credit card terminal. Actually, this process is what most internet merchants do. And setting yourself up with a traditional credit card system will also allow you to accept credit cards in the real world if you own a physical store. Real-time internet processors on the other hand process a customer's credit card number "directly" over the internet usually without your intervention. This is quicker because the payment is processed at the time of sale but it can take some control out of your hands (for instance, you may not want to fill every order). Also real-time systems are more expensive per transaction on average. Question Three: Shopping carts are interactive programs which allow the customer to select products and services to order. They are extremely attractive to customers because they give a very professional impression, and extremely attractive to merchants because they tend to improve sales speed and therefore profits. If you have a number of items for sale, we would recommend organizing them into a shopping cart system. Question Four: At WEBster Computing Services we offer four different cart
systems, WEBCScart, MIVAcart, OS Commerce and Agora.
They are truly four different types. Here is a quick run-down of
their major differences.
Question Five: No. Your credit card processor charges you monthly fees, per transaction fees and setup fees. They are all different. Check out their individual websites for details. You can assume that costs will range between 2-3% of the transaction amount. Question Six: Your credit card or payment processor will place funds into
a bank account you have access to. This usually happens two
business days after a transaction is made. For the sake of illustration, let's go through a number of fictional businesses to see how they setup their ecommerce system. Your solution may match one of these examples or you may design your own: (1) JT Snow Systems JT Snow systems is a candle making company. They already have a credit card merchant account setup with their bank or EMS2000.com and are accepting credit cards off-line. They decide to use this current merchant account with their website. Because they know how to program lite HTML they choose OS Commerce or WEBCScart. They don't need to choose a processor since they currently have one. Our staff installs a skeleton of WEBCScart into their website account along with a secure page where their customers can enter their credit card numbers. JT Snow alters their cart to fit their items and needs. User goes into the cart and places an order. The order and the credit card number goes to JT Snow. They process the card number off-line through their current credit card terminal and complete the customer's order. (2) Salt R Us Salt R Us sells 3000 brands of salt. That's a lot of salt! They don't have a credit card processor so they choose to use iTransact for their needs. They signup for service with iTransact and receive their merchant number. Because they know how to program lite HTML they choose WEBCScart. Our staff installs a skeleton of WEBCScart into their website account along with a direct link into iTransact's payment system using their merchant number. Salt R Us alters their cart to fit their items and needs. User goes into the cart and places an order. The cart automatically sends the user to iTransact at the end of his order and the customer completes his payment there. Salt R Us receives a receipt from both WEBCScart and iTransact. (3) We Got Everything We Got Everything sells, well, everything. They already have a credit card merchant account setup with their bank or EMS2000.com and are accepting credit cards off-line. They decide to use this current merchant account with their website. Because they do not know how to program any HTML and are uncomfortable doing so they choose OS Commerce or MIVAcart. They sign up for MIVA through us and we install the MIVAcart skeleton and MIVA license into their website account. MIVA has an option for a generic credit card form and that is what We Got Everything uses (if they chose Authorize.Net then there is an option for this system as well). We Got Everything logs onto their MIVA control system and alters their account via the browser to fit their needs. User goes into the cart and places an order. The cart
automatically sends the user to the generic credit card form (or
Authorize.Net if selected) and the customer completes his payment
there. We Got Everything receives a receipt from Miva. SHOPPING CARTS AND PAYMENT PROCESSORS: Now that you have determined what you need (see section
above), it is time to investigate the components of your ecommerce
parts list. The following links will bring you to pricing info,
specs and online demonstrations. Please note that although
WEBCScart is designed here at WEBster
Computing Services, all other ecommerce components come from third
parties, thus you will be taken to third party websites for cost
information concerning these systems.
This site is a proud product of WEBster Computing Services |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
