eCommerce Shopping Sites

Today’s world is the world of internet, from
gathering some information to buying any product everything can be done
by internet. eCommerce is one of the most important facets of the
Internet to have emerged in the recent times. eCommerce, which is short
for electronic commerce, is the process used to distribute, buy, sell
or market goods and services, and the transfer of funds online, through
electronic communications or networks. Electronic commerce is commonly
referred to as online commerce, Web commerce, eBusiness, eRetail,
eTailing, e-tailing, or EC. eCommerce or electronic commerce has opened
up new vistas of doing business anytime, anywhere.

At any given
time, there are approximately 8 million consumers worldwide that
actively shop and buy through Web based stores or retailers (nearly one
tenth of our world population). Online studies have claimed that online
retail revenues will surpass the quarter-trillion-dollar mark by 2011.

How It Works

The three main components of eCommerce are the Merchant Account, the Gateway, and the merchant’s Shopping Cart.

- Customer logs on to Internet to shop and connects to Merchant’s site.

- Customer elects to purchase a service or goods from merchant site.

- Merchants site connects to their Transaction Server (Gateway) through the Internet.

- Transaction Server connects to the Processing Network (ACH) to determine if Customers funds are available.

- Processing Network approves or disapproves transaction.

- If approved, Processing Network tells Transaction Server to proceed with sale.

1. Processing Network authorizes transfer of funds from Customer Bank to Merchant Bank.

2. Transaction Server confirms sale to Merchant’s site

3. Merchants site confirms sale to Customer

4. Depending on setup, Merchant delivers service or goods to Customer.

- If disapproved, Processing Network tells Transaction Server to decline sale.

1. Transaction Server relays decline notice to Merchant’s site.

2. Merchant’s site declines sale to customer.

There
are multiple layers of security for both the merchant and customer,
both at the site level and in the transaction server/processing
network, as well as at the banks. All sensitive information, especially
the credit card number, is encrypted before transmission.

It is
imperative that an eCommerce website offers absolute security for the
transactions that are carried out using credit cards. For the success
of any eCommerce website it is necessary that a proper choice of
payment gateway is made. A payment gateway is a separate service and
acts as an intermediary between the website’s shopping cart and all the
financial networks involved with the transaction, including the
customers’ credit card issuer and the eCommerce website. If the
eCommerce website has already purchased a shopping cart software, it
needs to ensure that the payment gateway service is compatible with
that shopping cart.

The benefits of eCommerce:

- Purchases can be made 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

- Ease of purchasing goods.

- Your marketplace is larger and can increase your sales potential.

- Payment for your goods or services can be make immediately.

- Lower Startup Costs Increase Efficiency and Profitability.

- More convenient for customers.

- Reduces your overheads.

-
The direct cost-of-sale for an order taken from a website is lower than
through traditional means (retail, paper-based), as there is no human
interaction during the online electronic purchase order process.

- Transactions can be processed quicker.

-
Selling Online allows merchants to target and reach audiences, even on
a limited budget. This creates the potential for anyone to sell
anything Online.

- You can quickly update prices.

- Easier
to Maintain Over Time. If an eCommerce design is done correctly from
the very beginning, it will make the task of design maintenance much
easier over time.

Silicon
Softwares holds expertise in using latest tools like Adobe Photoshop,
Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Macromedia Flash, Macromedia
Dreamweaver, Microsoft Front Page etc to create your exclusive designs.
We also ensure that our designs represent client’s business area
perfectly and look compelling to the targeted audience as well. Silicon
Softwares provides you with affordable website design and ecommerce web
development services in a professional manner backed up with a top
priority customer service.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ritika_Gupta