E-Commerce FAQ's
What is "E-Commerce"?
E-Commerce is the term used to describe the selling of goods and services over the Internet.
Do I need to know HTML to set up an online store?
No, you don't. The shopping carts offered by Melanie Gladding Design are also store building and editing tools. You don't need to know any HTML or Web programming.
How many products can I sell in my online store?
You can sell any number of products on your site, from just a few items to thousands.
How much does it cost to set up an online store?
The SunShop shopping cart is $249.00 for the first year and $149.50 for each additional year to continue support and access to upgrades. That breaks down to about $20.00 a month for the first year and less than $15.00 a month after that. Integrating the shopping cart into your web design is an additional fee. For a completely custom shopping cart/online store, contact Melanie Gladding Design for more information, such as pricing and timeline.
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There are other costs associated with an online store. For example, if you want to be able to accept credit cards and process those transactions online, you will need a merchant account and a payment gateway service. You will also need an SSL certificate. Typically, there are initial setup fees as well as on-going costs for these services.
What are my options for handling transactions?
You have a number of options for handling transactions. The most basic approach is to handle all of your transactions offline. For example, you could publish your address and have your customers send their orders along with a check or money order directly to you. You could also collect your customers’ credit card information via email or phone and then process the credit card transactions offline using a retail merchant account.
These are probably not the best approaches, though, because one the main reasons customers shop at an online store is for the speed and convenience it provides.
To increase the chances that customers will want to shop at your online store, it should be able to accept and process credit card transactions online and in “real time.” You can handle your own online transactions or outsource them to a third-party credit card processor.
What are third-party online credit card processors?
If you want to be able to accept credit cards but do not want to handle these yourself, you can use a third-party online credit card processor. When your customers want to purchase a product, they click a link that takes them to the third-party’s Web site, such as PayPal. There, they will submit their order and credit card information, which is then processed by the third-party processor. Essentially, these processors act as resellers. They may charge you a variety of fees for this service, including an initial set up fee, monthly fees and/or per-transaction fees.While outsourcing your online transactions may seem appealing, you should consider the fact that it will be obvious to your customers that their transactions are being handled not by your company but by a third-party.
What do I need to handle "real time" online credit card transactions myself?
You will need a merchant account, a payment gateway and an SSL certificate.
Capital Merchant Services offers merchant accounts and the Authorize.Net payment gateway. Authorize.Net is compatible with both the SunShop shopping cart and the custom cart application.
What is a merchant account? How do I get one?
A merchant account enables you to accept credit cards as payment for the purchase of goods and services. If you want to accept credit cards on your Web site, however, you need a specialize type of merchant account known as an “Internet-ready” merchant account.Internet-ready merchant accounts enable you to handle Internet transactions in "real time" without any human intervention. Because the risk of credit card fraud is greater when you are accepting credit cards over the Internet, these specialized merchant accounts also provide additional checks that can significantly reduce the chance of credit card fraud. Once the transactions are processed, the merchant account provider transfers the funds received from the credit card transactions from your merchant account to your bank account.
What is a payment gateway? How do I find one?
A payment gateway is a service that connects your online store with your merchant account provider. This service reads the information from the order forms and translates that information for the merchant account. The payment gateway also verifies that the customer’s credit card account has the necessary credit available for the purchase.You can obtain a payment gateway separately from your merchant account, however you may find it simpler to choose a merchant account provider that also offers a payment gateway, such as Capital Merchant Services.
How can I assure my customers that their transactions are secure? Obviously, if your customers will be submitting their credit card information to you online they will want to know that this information is safe. If they are not comfortable with the security your site offers, they will probably not buy products from you.
The best way to alleviate your customers’ concerns is to secure your site using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). When a site is secured with SSL—the standard form of encryption currently used on the Web—visitors will see a special symbol in their browser window that indicates the site is secure. Visitors can also tell that a page is secured by looking at the URL. A secure page’s URL begins with the letters “HTTPS” instead of the standard “HTTP.”
What is SSL?
SSL is short for Secure Socket Layer. SSL is an encryption technology on the server that scrambles important data such as credit card numbers and order information when it is being stored or passed from one computer to another. Currently, 256 bit SSL Certificates are the strongest encryption available to the general public.
What is an SSL Certificate? How do I get one?
An SSL Certificate, or a digital certificate, is an electronic document that contains the information necessary to establish a secure SSL connection. When used in credit card transactions, the Web site collecting the credit card information and the site to which the information is being transmitted must both have an SSL Certificate.For clients that choose to use Melanie Gladding Design's hosting services, I offer a 256-Bit SSL Certificate for $89 for one year and $179 for three years. Contact Melanie Gladding Design for more information.