E-Commerce Overview - Flighthost.com


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What Is E-Commerce?

Ask 100 people what e-commerce means and you're likely to get 100 different answers. In its simplest form "e-commerce is the buying or selling of goods or services by electronic means". It can be as simple as a web page with an order form or as complex as sites such as Amazon.com.

Selling Online:

There are a two basic methods used to sell products or services over the web.

list your products or services in your web pages and then supply a secure order form to collect the order and payment information from the customer.

The "Shopping Cart" method. A shopping cart is a program that resides on a web server and displays the products available in such a manner that the customer can place multiple products into a virtual "shopping cart". When the customer is ready to complete their order, the system collects their payment information and notifies you of the sale.

How To Get Paid:

As e-commerce has grown so has the number of methods you can use to receive payment for your sales. The list below outlines the most common methods for making/receiving payment.

1. Paper Check Via Postal Mail
2. Electronic Check
3. Credit / Debit Cards
4. Paypal

Payment Methods Explained:

Electronic Checks:

The acceptance of electronic checks is rapidly gaining a foothold in the realm of e-commerce. Accepting a check electronically reduces the delays and risks normally associated with check transactions. Transaction fees usually range between 1% and 2% of the sale price. The average time from sale to settlement is 3-10 days.

Credit / Debit Cards:

Everyone has heard horror stories associated with credit cards and the Internet. With the maturity of secure servers and fraud protection by processors it has become a very safe way to do business on the internet. Merchant accounts usually require a minimum monthly fee plus a per-transaction fee between 2.3% and 3.5% of the sale price. The average time from sale to settlement is 2-4 days.

Paypal:

Paypal allows the acceptance of checks or credit cards without the need for a merchant account. This system is best known by users of Ebay. The customer enters their payment information on the Paypal website. After the payment has cleared PayPal deposits the money (less transaction fees) into your checking account. The transaction fees are 2.9% + .30 per transaction. For more information please see the paypal website.

Payment Processing:

There are two methods of processing payments, "Off-Line" and "Real-Time". Off-Line processing means that the payment information is retrieved by the store operator and manually entered into a terminal or software program that then notifies the bank to debit the customer. This is the cheapest method of accepting payments over the Internet. We usually suggest that our customers start with "Off-Line" processing and then switch to "Real-Time" when the work load gets too high.

With "Real-Time" processing the sale amount is automatically submitted to the bank and authorized when the order is placed. If approved the funds will automatically be deposited into your bank account. Real-Time processing is usually recommended for sites with a larger number of daily sales to cut down on the work load. Most shopping cart programs can handle either Off-Line or Real-Time processing so upgrading to this capability is a fairly simple matter. It is extremely important that you make sure the shopping cart software you choose can handle your desired processing method.

Keeping Information Secure:

The most important item in accepting payments online is security. Our Standard, Professional and Premium accounts come with free use of our own SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. These certificates encrypt the transmission of data between your customer and our server to prevent the interception of sensitive data. If you are going to be passing sensitive information via email we strongly recommend that you purchase your own SSL certificate so that you can encrypt access to our email system for security purposes.

Where To Go From Here?:

If you would like to learn more about the various options available from Flighthost please take some time to view the links at the top of this page. Our E-Commerce experts are available to answer your questions via phone at 800-850-5608 or online through our help desk at http:/www.sitemedic.net