Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) enables your web site to conduct financial transactions without a live body present to process the order. E-Commerce works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365(6) days a year, and without holiday breaks. An E-Commerce web site consists of the following applications:
The On-line Catalog. The catalog can be manually generated and updated, or performed automatically by a database application.
Real Time Check Transactions. Process electronic checks, or verify paper checks before depositing in your bank.
Secure Credit Card Transactions. Accept Credit Card Transactions on-line, from e-mail, telephone, or US Mail.
We can develop web page templates for you to insert your products for use in a shopping cart application. We can develop a database driven catalog system to generate the catalog pages with all the required code installed and ready for you to upload to your web server. We use Microsoft Access 8.0 as our database engine, you will need to have Access installed at your location in order to update your records and create the catalog pages automatically. We can provide this service for you from our location, and upload the data files for an additional monthly fee to your Maintenance Contract.
There are shopping cart programs available throughout the Internet and at software stores. We will work with you on any of these applications to create the catalog web pages; we cannot support the application itself. For security reasons, we strongly recommend using the online shopping cart system available from your Secure Web Server.
A well-designed shopping cart system will also permit you to process personal and corporate bank checks with check verification. It will also permit you to operate a "Live Terminal" to process credit cards presented in person, delivered by e-mail, and through telephone contact.
The E-Commerce solution provides you with the ability to give your customers the maximum flexibility for shopping in your online store.
Online Catalogs
Online catalogs are designed with two objects in mind.
First, to provide your customers with a list of products you have available for sale, and a means to purchase the products.
Second, to provide your visitors with an idea of the types of products you carry in your store, and a means to obtain more information on these products.
Online catalogs can be exclusively text based, or include small images of each product with a Hyper Link to a larger, more detailed image of the product.
Online catalogs are maintained by the owner of the web site to facilitate timely updates to the catalogs. We can provide this service for you with an additional monthly fee to your Maintenance Contract.
Real Time Check Transactions
Real Time Check Transactions provide an alternate method to E-Commerce Solutions for conducting business on the Internet. Real Time Check Transactions permit you to accept corporate bank checks and personal bank checks through telephone communications, e-mail messages, and postal mail letters. Real Time means you or your customer can access the Check Processing program, enter the bank data and dollar amount, have the check verified and debited from the clients account, and deposited into your account electronically.
We recommend checks received through postal mail be verified only and not deposited into your account electronically. Following the established banking methods of processing paper checks, your clients will have an audit trail for their checking account.
Real Time Check Transactions are designed for the small business, which is not ready to venture into the E-Commerce Solutions approach to financial transactions. These businesses usually depend on paper checks, postal money orders, commercial money orders, bank drafts, and international drafts or money orders.
Secure Credit Card Transactions
One of the fastest growing elements of the World Wide Web is the ability to accept Credit Card Transactions through your web site. Enabling Credit Card Transactions on your web site automates the sale, collection of monetary funds, collection of customer information, and shipping information. Whether your web site catalogs will be updated manually, or automated by a database, your customer will always have the most current information for purchasing your products and services.
Secure Credit Card Transactions are transmitted through a secure web server using the latest secure technology, Secure Socket Layers (SSL). This technology turns on the Security Applications in your customer's web browser. All information exchanged between you and your customer is encrypted through the SSL technology.
The security of data transmission using SSL technology is a fact. The U. S. Government tried to ban the open use of 128-bit encryption for U. S. Citizens because the government could not decode SSL communications. Consider the everyday use of credit cards and the security hazards they present. Telephone communications can be tapped. Cell phones can be monitored. The clerk in the department store has a printed copy of the credit card number. The waiter in the restaurant may have a portable hand scanner to scan your card for personal gain.
The choice of a Secure Server is yours; we have two well-respected services for your consideration. We will be able to work in concert with your selection of a secure server.
E-Commerce Solutions