You've decided that you need a complete online store on your own website. That's a big undertaking. In this part of our series, we'll look at what that takes. But even if you don't want to host a complete online store yourself, this part will begin the discussion of the various components. Much of what we talk about will be applicable in other scenarios. Overview In this part, we're going to dig into the Merchant Store scenario (the left-most in our scenario ... [»]
Articles from August, 2010
In previous parts of this series, we described the major steps in a typical eCommerce process, identified the 4 major scenarios for how to divide the eCommerce functionality between the merchant's website and outside providers, and examined recent payment card security initiatives that affect all merchants. In this part, we'll continue covering general considerations that might influence your decision about which of the 4 major eCommerce scenarios is right for you. Investment vs. Ongoing Cost If you want to accept payment (credit/debit) ... [»]
Now that we have identified the 4 major scenarios for how to divide the eCommerce functionality between the merchant's website and outside providers, we'll begin covering some general considerations that might influence your decision about which of the scenarios is right for you. Specifically, we will cover a relatively new development in payment card security that has important implications for all eCommerce implementations. PCI-DSS Once upon a time you could load eCommerce software onto your web server, set up a Merchant Account ... [»]
In eCommerce Demystified - Part 1, we identified the major steps in a typical eCommerce process. As we noted then, you'll need to decide which steps of the process to outsource and which to handle on your own website. Although there are many possible combinations, in practice there are only four standard eCommerce scenarios. In this segment, we'll identify and explain those four scenarios. eCommerce Scenarios The diagram below recaps the major eCommerce steps. The table below identifies the 4 major eCommerce scenarios. Let's ... [»]