To create a successful e-business you need . . .

» An e-commerce website to display your products
» A shopping cart program
» The ability to accept credit cards as a payment

How our basic e-commerce program works . . .

When your customer "clicks" on the "buy button" located next to the description and photo of your product, the order information will be submitted through a secured transaction network. In a matter of minutes you will receive an e-mail message notifying you that a new order has been placed from your website.

The actual order does not appear in the e-mail notification message as this would compromise security. You will retrieve your customer orders, credit card information and shipping information by logging on to your secured merchant account using your username and password.

You will then process your customer's credit card information, as you normally do and ship the order.

There are other e-commerce options available that do not require a shopping cart program, such as PayPal®. The main disadvantage of using this type of program is if your customer does not have an account with PayPal, they would have to establish an account before they could proceed with their order. However, PayPal currently has over 25 Million members worldwide, so the odds are good that anyone who shops online already has a PayPal account.