Welcome to the eCommerce Guide. Ecommerce can be defined in many ways.  In a nutshell, ecommerce is the ability to accept payments for services and merchandise directly from your website.  These payments are usually by credit card, but there are other options as well. 

This tutorial will show you how to get started in the complex and exciting world of Electronic Commerce. We will focus primarily on hosting, shopping carts and accepting credit cards. 

So how does the typical ecommerce transaction flow?  

Typically, the consumer moves through the internet to the merchant's web site. From there, he decides that he wants to purchase something, so he is moved to the online transaction server, where all of the information he gives is encrypted. Once he has placed his order, the information moves through a private gateway to a Processing Network, where the issuing and acquiring banks complete or deny the transaction. This generally takes place in no more than 5-7 seconds.

There are many different payment systems available to accommodate the varied processing needs of merchants, from those who have a few orders a day to those who process thousands of transactions daily. With the addition of Secure Socket Layer technology, eCommerce is also a very safe way to complete transactions. 

There are several basic steps involved in becoming commerce enabled.

• Deciding how to accept payments
• Getting an Internet Merchant Account
• Shopping Carts and forms
• Putting it all together/hosting
• The pitfalls of ecommerce