Ecommerce or Electric Commerce, is one of the most important aspects of the internet .It allows people to exchange goods and services immediately and with no restrictions of time or distance ,24 x 7 from anywhere on the globe.

Imagine you are living in a small city in India and are shopping in America sitting at home on your favorite chair ----it is possible through e-commerce.

E-commerce Steps

There are various steps you have to take as a merchant to create a successful e-commerce business.

Getting an Internet Merchant Bank Account
Web Hosting
Obtaining a Digital Certificate
Finding a Provider of Online Transactions
Creating or Purchasing a Shopping Cart Software

Internet Merchant Bank Account

Internet Merchant Accounts are bank accounts specially designed for the merchants; they are approved and can receive payment via credit cards. Credit card companies have strict rules and requirements that have to be met before a merchant can open an account. Merchant Account companies act as a middle man between the merchant and the Credit Card Providers making sure needs are met on both sides. Internet merchant accounts do not hold funds for a long period of time. Transfer of payments to another bank account chosen by the internet merchants are done on a daily or weekly basis. The primary reason of merchant accounts is the application and verification processes which provide them with reliability. Cards are processed through an Internet Merchant Account either manually through store credit card terminal, online through a web based terminal page, or automatically through merchant's web shopping cart.

Web Hosting

A web hosting service is an Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to supply their own websites accessible via the internet. Web hosts companies provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity. There are many free and paid providers offering web hosting services. A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. The website you place on the internet is your ambassador in the virtual world, so be very careful and professional when doing so.

Digital Certificate

A digital certificate is an electronic file which contains personal information of its owner, like the name and email address, as well as owner's public key. It acts as an identity card for each user; it is the proof of ownership of a public key. There are several companies, known as Certificate Authorities (CA), that issue Digital Certificates. The CA signs the certificates it creates, this enables users to know what CA created each certificate. The signature also ensures that the certificate has not been altered by a third party.

Provider of Online Transactions

To process online orders, you must present online payment options. There are many options for online payment, but the credit card is the most popular. Other methods of collecting payment are charging items to a phone bill, using electronic funds transfers (EFT), and paying by electronic check. These methods require payment processing either in the form of software added to your Web site or by linking to a payment processing service. To accept credit cards, you must set up a merchant account; your merchant account provider (MAP) can be a bank or any other institution that processes online credit card transactions. Most MAP are local if you want to provide your product globally, you may need to search specifically for an international provider.

Shopping Cart Software

Choosing the best shopping cart solutions for your ecommerce venture is vital to the success of your online business. Shopping Cart are basically a series of scripts that keep track of items a visitor chooses to buy from your site until they proceed to the final checkout. The payment gateway service then pushes the requests and transfers relevant financial networks, including the Internet merchant account with your bank. Then it sends back verification back to the shopping cart software. If the customer is verified then the sale is completed.

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