E-Commerce FAQ
What can Electronic Commerce do for me?
Having a storefront on the web allows you to offer your products to anyone, anywhere,
anytime. The Internet has revolutionized the whole concept of marketing and sales
by eliminating the geographic and time-related barriers between the merchant and
consumer. Now, without hiring a single new employee, you can receive and process
orders from all over the world 24 hours a day.
What is a Web store or eStore?
A Web store or eStore is a site on the World Wide Web to pitch for orders, accept orders, process
payment and sometimes ship orders.
Isn't my business too small for E-Commerce?
Absolutely not! Businesses of every size can and are taking advantage of E-Commerce.
E-Commerce is entirely scalable from just a few products to tens of thousands.
How do I accept orders?
Although most E-Commerce sites are probably set up with the expectation that
the majority of orders will be received through the web, the reality is that many
customers prefer to use the web to aid in the selection of a product and then to
order by more traditional methods. You therefore need to ensure you are able to
accept orders in as many different ways as possible:
- Secure Order Form
- E-Mail
- Fax
- Telephone
- Regular Mail
What is a Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway essentially performs the same function as your POS terminal,
automatically. The gateway software system takes the online payment information
from your ordering form and sends this information to the financial processor
using your merchant account, and finally reports back whether the transaction
was approved. Online processing or transaction providers offer this gateway.
Do I have to have an online processing company to do my credit card ordering?
No. There are two options for processing credit cards. You can choose to have
the server automatically send you the credit card information for you to process
yourself on your credit card machine. This is known as "Simple credit card validation".
The other option is to use PayPal Payment Services and payQuake so you can process
the charge online, automatically, in a much more secure and quick manner.
What is a shopping cart?
A shopping cart is a program in a web site that allows a customer to view products
and add them to a "basket" as they would in a physical retail store. The shopping
cart is usually connected to a database of products, and helps the merchant with
shipping, pricing and inventory calculations.
Can I take orders with a shopping cart and not use credit cards?
Yes! You can have people place orders and process them after receiving payment
by any other means you desire, such as by check, money order, etc.
Do I need to know HTML or programming to manage my storefront?
Probably not. Most shopping carts today use a browser based administration interface
that provides access to an array
of tools to maintain your cart site.
What is a digital certificate?
Digital certificates provide the basis for secure electronic transactions as
they enable all participants in a transaction to quickly and easily verify the identity
of the other participants. They are digitally signed and issued by a Certificate
Authority (CA) which verifies that the public key attached to the certificate belongs
to the party stated. Postrock uses Equifax Secure Inc. for its CA.
What is SSL?
Secure Socket Layers or SSL allows safe business transactions between the client
and merchant. Before a customer orders online, they want to be sure that their personal
and ordering details will only be seen by you. They want to be certain their payment
information cannot be intercepted by outside sources. In order for you to accept
and process credit cards and other private information over the Internet with full
assurance of customer privacy, customer data can be encrypted and scrambled online
via SSL. Before you set up your e-commerce system, make sure your web server has
the SSL option. You need a digital certificate combined with SSL to do secure transactions.
I have bad credit. Can I still qualify for a Merchant Account?
Yes. payPal has a high approval rate. Your rates will be higher, but you will
be approved.
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