Electronic Commerce includes all forms of business communication and transactions conducted across the internet. This can include e-tailing (shopping carts), B2B, intranets and extranets, online advertising (e.g. advertising banners), and simply put – an online presence in any form, that is used for some type of trading communication (customer service for example).
E-commerce may also refer to electronic data interchange (EDI), in which one company’s computer queries and transmits purchase orders to another company’s computer.
From a website design perspective e-tailing (buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of funds) are the most commonly requested aspect of e-commerce.
The basic elements required are:
1. An SSL Certificate – provides an encrypted area for the checkout, securely coding your personal details and credit card data.
2. A payment gateway to talk to the credit card company electronically to check if you have the credit available and the card is not stolen.
3. An internet merchant bank account to deposit the funds into after the transaction
Some provider such as PayPal, NoChex and WorldPay offer item 2 & 3 combined, whichever route you chose, and there are many, they all take around 3% of the transaction value and some have additional charges for processing or maintaining your account.
Note: If you have FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) membership you can get very good rates through WorldPay and a free virtual terminal (allows you to take credit cards over the phone and process online).
Please request our e-commerce guide for more details of payment processes and shopping cart systems.
