FAQs about eCommerce and Shopping Carts

eCommerce supplements the traditional selling channels and attracts customers that you never knew existed. The Internet revolution is affecting every company, no matter its size. Business of all sizes can equally share in the benefits of eCommerce, but they are all equally vulnerable to being left behind if they do not adopt the new business models.

A. Chose Payment Options:

• Off-line Credit Card Processing
  This is a good option if you currently have a Merchant Account with a local bank. Your customers' credit card information is captured and stored on our server for later authorization and transaction processing through a traditional card swipe terminal or through a computer. If you are clearing more than 100 transactions a month, you may want to consider the real-time payment processing option.

• Real-Time Payment Gateway Processing enabled by Merchant Accounts
  To process credit cards transactions in real time through your web site you need to:

• Open a merchant account with a financial institution. Sign up for a payment gateway. Merchant Accounts give you the ability to take Credit Card and online check information from your prospective customers over the Internet. All the FooShopping products (eCommerce Software) offer seamless integration with our online payment gateways providing you with a completely integrated eCommerce Solution.

Merchant Accounts are issued through an Authorizing Bank. A Merchant Account is like a Drivers License. Though you have a driver's license you can't move around without a vehicle. Similarly for you to use your Merchant Account you need a vehicle to move the information around. For example you could ask your web site prospects to call you on the phone to place their orders. Now the phone is your vehicle to move their Credit Card information.

B. Online eCommerce Shopping Cart

An Online eCommerce Order is another example of a vehicle to move Credit Card and ordering information. Your customers can efficiently order 24 hours a day. Also an eCommerce solution eliminates some potential for error as there is only one human involved in the process rather than two.

The eCommerce (shopping cart) solution is a vehicle that enables you to:

• Get the ordering information from the customer
• Verify via email to the customer that his order has been placed
• Deliver the notification and ordering information to the buyer
• The more information the shopping cart can collect, the wider its application can be.

• Reduces Errors: No need to enter transaction amounts at both the cash register and processing terminals.
• Creates Transaction Database: Stores transaction information in your database for as long as you want. You'll never have to search for lost transaction information.
• Increases Accountability: It is easy to confirm whether you have received the proper amount of credit for each transaction.
• Minimizes Fraud: Performs address verification (AVS), and eliminates the chance of shipping to someone using a stolen credit card, saving you from a charge back.
• Quicker Transactions: Allows you to send multiple transactions as a batch, thus reducing authorization time to as low as three seconds per transaction.
• Lowers Transaction Costs: Electronic processing is faster and less expensive than paper processing.
• Faster Billing: Makes it easy to build and process a batch of transactions as often as needed; great for recurring billing.
• Recurring Billing: Schedule transactions to be processed according to your specific billing requirements.

An Electronic Shopping Cart works the same way a shopping cart does in the physical world. As customers browse through your online store, they can place products they intend buying in their virtual shopping cart, which keeps track of the products placed in it. When they are ready to leave your store, they click a "check out" link which shows them what they've placed in their virtual shopping cart. Here they have the option to remove items they are no longer interested in purchasing. Then they enter their shipping and payment information to process the order.

No. But we do offer merchant accounts through our website. These are indutry leading merchant accounts. Just visit our busineess merchant account section to sigup.

An ordinary website presents prospective customers with only information and the only purchasing options available are off-line. On the other hand an eCommerce site not only presents all the required information but also provides secure options to complete the sale right there.

An ordinary website is like a copy of your printed catalog, only presenting information, whereas an eCommerce website is a new business unit that complements your existing traditional selling channels and accentuates an entirely new sales/distribution channel.

An ordinary website offers limited security options. On the other hand eCommerce sites provide options for high levels of security by encrypting data and transferring it over secure servers.

An ordinary we site operates entirely outside your existing business system. All orders have to be manually entered into the system and processed off-line. Whereas an eCommerce web site integrates into your existing system for inventory control, order processing and order fulfillment. A fully integrated eCommerce web site automatically ties into your existing business process and acts like an extension to your existing sales force.

Website design for an ordinary website and for an eCommerce website typically involve a much different approach. More programming is needed for eCommerce websites (shopping carts) than static websites.