Shopping carts, secure servers, merchant accounts, on-line processing, cgi scripts!! If you're frustrated trying to
piece together a shopping cart solution it's time to talk to Pacific Business Marketing!How e-commerce solutions work The image below shows the "pieces" required for a
typical e-commerce solution. Click on a component for a more detailed description of each step of the e-commerce process. Your Customer
Your customer browses your site and decides to purchase one or more items
from you. Typically, the purchase information is accumulated, totaled and "held" by your selected
shopping cart software package.Your Web Server
When the customer is finished shopping and has reviewed the contents of their shopping cart, they are linked to a secure form on your web server (or the on-line processor's web server).
SSL Encrypted Data
The secure form (whether on your server or the on-line processor's server) is encrypted for privacy. Your On-Line Processor
The encrypted data is forwarded to the on-line processor ( Authorize.Net in our example ) who will "keep" the details of your customer's order and forward only the relevant credit card information to the banking system.
Leased Line
The on-line processor maintains a dedicated, or "leased line" connection to the banking system for processing of the thousands of transactions it receives on an hourly basis.
Your Merchant Account
The banking system then processes your merchant account transaction by contacting your customer's credit card company for an "accept" or "decline"
on the amount of the credit card purchase. Subsequent to acceptance of the credit card transaction, the funds are transferred to the bank account you specified when you set up your merchant account.
Optional E-Mail Receipt
Upon receipt of the acceptance message both you and your customer may optionally be notified by e-mail of the purchase approval and purchase details.
Regardless, the order details are transferred back to your site for subsequent processing of the order! |
