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ECommerce 101

Simply, e-commerce is electronic commerce, the buying and selling of goods over the internet. E-commerce can get very complicated, but I will try and help to simplify the processes and procedures, and get you set up with your e-commerce system with as much ease as possible.

The Basics
Every ecommerce system consists of six parts. You need hosting, an online store, a dedicated IP address, a SSL certificate, Payment Gateway, and a Merchant account.

Hosting
Hosting is storing your website on a server (computer) that is connected to the Internet and making it available to the world. Stomp Interactive offers hosting services starting at 6.99 and can go up to hundreds of dollars for custom applications. The entry level hosting account for hosting an ecommerce store starts at 24.99. This is a competitive price, and gives you all the things you will ever need running your online business (see the hosting comparison for a breakdown of included services and applications).

Online Store
We have all used online stores to make purchases over the Internet. From Amazon, to Target, and Ebay. These all are very large versions of online stores. Stomp uses a few different options for building online stores. We have built completely custom stores that can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, or started with prepackaged solutions that can provide a simple fast and highly customizable store for a few hundred dollars. The links below represent companies that we have built stores for.

SpyderSurf
Modern Army
Ezeus Designs
Bella Bloom Designs
CoupeKing

Dedicated IP Address
An IP address is somewhat like it sounds. It is the physical address your computer uses when it is connected to the Internet. When we set up your online store with a dedicated IP address, you are actually purchasing your own address that will not change and we can use to set up security measures such as an SSL certificate (see below). If you do not have a dedicated IP address we cannot set up an SSL certificate for your store.

SSL Certificate
This is a must have for making monetary transactions across the Internet, literally required by merchant account providers.  SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. Click here for a detailed description of an SSL certificate. Basically a SSL certificate is a digital “handshake” that makes a secure connection between your server and the shoppers’ computer making it impossible for a hacker to intercept the transaction. There are different levels of security that are available, and the more secure, the more expensive. Typically a good SSL certificate can cost about $50- $150 dollars a year with discounts for multi year plans. Depending on your budget and security needs you can spend much more, and get much higher levels of security. Just so you know, most typical ecommerce stores are fine with the $50-$150 SSL certificates I mentioned above.

Payment Gateway
A payment gateway is another required piece of our ecommerce puzzle. The payment gateway acts as the conduit between your online store, and your merchant account. Stomp Interactive only works with Authorize.net.

Merchant Account
The final piece of our ecommerce puzzle is the merchant account. A merchant account is the company that has the relationships with the credit card companies. When we sign you up for your Merchant account they handle the applications for the credit card companies you want to provide, like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. The merchant account typically required you to provide your companies DBA (doing business as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBA) when setting up your account. They will also require you to have a bank account set up to hold the funds from the credit card transactions. Depending on your business model, you may want to get with your bank and set up a separate bank account to help keep your accounting clean and separate from your personal banking.

There you have it. Ecommerce 101, the basics of doing business on the Internet. Please contact us for consulting on how to configure the right ecommerce solution for your business. SALES LINK

Paul Albertson