E-Commerce Web Design, Online Stores
& Collecting Dues and Payment Online!

E-Commerce Web Site Design. How Online Transactions Let You Do More Business Online.

Most often e-commerce web design is used to refer to the sale of goods on the Internet through the use of a shopping cart. While this is probably the most common form of e-commerce, shopping cart software can be extremely versatile and can perform monetary transactions online for many reasons.

Here are just a few examples of how e-commerce web site design, and online transactions can improve your cash flow and be valuable in helping you better serve your customers or members by allowing them to Pay Online:

• Purchasing Services Online
• Online Registrations for Sporting or Entertainment Events
• Online Charitable Contributions for Churches and Nonprofit Organizations
• Collect Dues and Membership Payments Online
• Online Products Sales
• Collect Recurring Monthly Fees for Services or Licenses Online

 

How E-commerce Works

The term e-commerce is a general term used to describe "Electronic Commerce" or performing a financial transaction online. Any time a payment is made online, be it with a credit card, initiating an ACH transaction, or purchasing or making a payment online directly from a checking account, it is considered to be an e-commerce transaction. Now that we've explained what e-commerce is, let's look at how e-commerce works.

There are a number of components needed to perform an online transaction. And there are many companies and vendors that provide these services. And due to the laws governing online commerce and the complexity involved in credit card authorizations and transaction involving bank accounts, you will most likely choose to use a third party vendor to provide some of the components needed for your e-commerce web site. But don't feel overwhelmed, there are only a few pieces and we will help you select the providers best suited for your requirements. Let's look a little closer at the components we will need to select and configure in your new e-commerce web site to give you and your web site the ability to collect a payment online, and automatically deposit it into your bank account.

 

The Four Main Components of E-Commerce and Online Transactions, and How They Work Together:

Shopping cart Software: Today there are a number of free shopping card platforms available, many with very robust features that we will configure when we build your new e-commerce web site. Your shopping cart software will have an admin console. The shopping cart admin allows you to manage your products, present featured items, set sale items, fully manage your inventory, set shipping providers, have different pricing for different types of customers and much, much more. But Shopping Carts are not just for selling products. Think of a shopping Cart is the software portion of e-commerce that allows for the sale of any product or service. The primary task of shopping cart software is to allow a visitor to browse and select an item, a service, register for an event, make a donation, etc., place it in their "Shopping Cart" and proceed to "Check Out" where the total cost of their items are calculated by the shopping cart software, sales tax and shipping charges are added if applicable. And the Shopping cart software then passes these details to the next component.

The Payment Gateway: An Online Payment gateway is generally provided by your credit card merchant services provider. There are other options available that we can discuss, but it is usually advantageous and easiest to configure your merchant services provider's payment gateway. The Payment gateways is the component that is built into the shopping cart and is where your customer or member chooses how to pay. They will be presented with options to pay with a credit or debit card, or their checking account. The Payment Gateway collects the credit card or checking account information and securely delivers it to your merchant services provider. This is where performing a "Secure Online Transaction" takes place.

SSL | Secure Online Transactions Ensuring the security of your customer's and member's credit card and bank account info is of the utmost importance. So to properly protect this information, we will add an SSL Certificate to the areas of your shopping cart the must be protected. SSL or Secure Socket Layer is a technology that performs a number of security checks and also encrypts the transaction information as it travels from your web site to and back from your merchant services provider. An SSL Certificate from one of the large providers such as Authorize.net or GoDaddy.com is recommended as they will be the most widely recognized and trusted by your customers and members. Now that we have explained shopping and selecting items in your shopping cart, checking out through your payment gateway, and how you will secure the online transaction, let's look at what your Merchant Services Provider will do.

Your Merchant Services Provider: These are the folks that most business owners know to be the people behind the little credit card terminals that often accompany's or is built into any business's cash register. The merchant Services Provider actually performs the charge to the purchaser's credit or debit card with Visa, Master Card, Discover Card, and American Express, or the customer's checking account, collects an authorization from the credit card provider or bank, and transfer the funds from the customer's account into your Business Checking Account. This is the last step or component of how an e-commerce transaction is performed.

 

Lets Discuss Your E-Commerce Web Design Ideas

At BoomClient, we have extensive experience with custom e-commerce solutions. We have helped develop large national e-commerce we sites down to small e-commerce web sites that sell one or two items or services. They can be as basic or as complex as you need yours to be, and we are very familiar with the various options you will want to consider for your e-commerce web site or online store.

Give us a call to discuss your e-commerce or online store ideas. We would be pleased to answer any questions you might have and provide any information you might need about our Jacksonville E-Commerce Web Design Services.

Call (904) 482-0246 in Jacksonville
Or Toll Free (877) 310-BOOM (2666)