This overview is
intended to help you
understand what the word
"E-Commerce" means and
what you need to know in
order to turn your web
site into an online
store.
There are three major
requirements for setting
up a fully functional
e-commerce website: a
shopping cart, a payment
gateway, and a merchant
account. Differentiating
among these three items
can be somewhat
confusing, so XP-Mall
takes many steps to make
this process easier,
both for experienced
customers using custom
developed applications
and for customers using
other "off-the-shelf"
shopping
carts/storefronts.
When building your
web site you need to ask
the following questions:
-
Are you going
to use an
existing
software package
like Storefront
or XP-Mall to
handle your
shopping
cart/storefront
or are you
developing your
own shopping
cart
application?
-
Do you need
real time credit
card processing?
-
Do you
have a
merchant
account set
up?
-
Do you need
to have "secure
web pages" in
order to accept
credit card
information from
your customers?
If so, do you
wish to use
XP-Mall's secure
web site, or
create your own
on your web
site?
Are you going to
use an existing software
package like Storefront
or Cartweaver to handle
your shopping
cart/storefront or are
you developing your own
shopping cart
application?
Before you start your
e-commerce endeavor, you
will want to choose
whether you are going to
use a vendor built
shopping cart system or
a custom developed
application. Using a
pre-built and
customizable solution
gives you many
advantages:
- Low development
time for your
website, quicker to
the market
- Most offer
support for MANY
different processing
companies which are
fully integrated
into the software
and require little
development.
- The ability to
customize your
shopping cart to fit
your website.
- Upgrades and new
functionality
available
periodically without
the need for new
development work.
However, a
custom-developed
shopping cart system has
benefits of its own:
- Fully
customizable and
built to
requirements.
- The store can be
developed towards
the different
Payment Gateways
XP-Mall supports.
- Built using the
scripting
environment (ASP,
.NET, ColdFusion,
Perl, etc.) of your
choice.
- Complete
knowledge of your
store in case of
problems.
Do you need real
time credit card
processing?
When setting up a
website you need to know
if you want to process
credit cards online via
a "payment gateway" or
off-line at a
Point-of-Sale (POS)
terminal. Both systems
work basically the same:
they verify the credit
card number, check the
expiration date, confirm
the card has available
credit, send the
information to your
merchant account, and
send an approved or
declined message to you
or your shopping cart.
XP-Mall supports many of
the most popular payment
gateways, and most can
be accessed for use with
your custom shopping
cart. Payment Gateway
companies are services
you must subscribe to,
so there are fees
involved with setting
gateways up. These fees
vary and may include a
setup fee, a monthly
fee, and per transaction
fees (or any combination
of all three). Gateways
interact with your
merchant account to
charge a credit card
(authorization) and
collect the money to
deposit into your bank
account (settlement).
XP-Mall supports U.S.
Merchant Services,
Verisign PayFlowPro,
Cybercash, and
Authorize.Net as well as
other gateways. As there
are so many other
Payment Gateways
available, we are unable
to know whether we have
the tools already
available for them to
work. However in most
cases, we can support
your payment gateway.
Please contact us if you
do not see it listed.
Below is a link to
ratings for various
Payment Solutions.
Investigate each one in
order to ensure you're
picking the right
solution to your needs:
http://ecommerce.internet.com/reviews/glance/1,,10355_5,00.html
Do you have a
merchant account set up?
So you have a
shopping cart, and a
payment gateway. Now you
need a way to accept
payments made for the
products you sell. A
"merchant account" is a
type of relationship you
have with a bank or
other financial
institution to accept
and deposit credit card
payments. Generally,
your local bank will
have a process or
service in place that
allows for online
transactions. If not, or
if they want to charge
fees that are
unacceptable to you,
there are a myriad of
other companies who
specialize in merchant
accounts. As with
payment gateways, a
merchant account is a
service, and there are
fees associated with
this service. Fees can
range from application
and/or setup fees,
licensing fees, discount
rates (a fee that goes
to the bank and the
processor to cover the
costs of the
transaction), monthly
service fees, per
transaction fees.
Merchant accounts may
have two other types of
fees: a reserve fund,
which may be required to
cover charge backs, and
charge back fees, which
are similar to NSF fees
a bank charges for
returned checks. Try
doing a search for
"merchant account" in
your search engine of
choice and the
possibilities are
endless.
Do you need to
have "secure web pages"
in order to accept
credit card information
from your customers? If
so, do you wish to use
XP-Mall's secure web
site, or create your own
on your web site?
When taking
customers' Credit Card
numbers, your customers
want to be assured that
data is being sent
securely over the
Internet. Technologies
like "SSL encryption"
are used to encrypt data
as it is being sent, so
that the information
cannot be intercepted
and read in transit. SSL
encryption requires the
use of a "Certificate",
which can be thought of
as a "key" that "locks"
the incoming data, and
"unlocks" it when it
arrives so the
information can be used.
As you may have
guessed, there is a cost
to obtain these
"Certificates". You have
two options when hosting
with XP-Mall.
