ECommerce

Where can I learn more about e-commerce for web sites, as a designer this would be a great tool to have under my bealt. Where is the best place to start?
Thanks all!

 

Let me be the first to say that e-commerce is not something mystical. Programming for it is relatively easy if you have a good understanding the technology behind it and the API's used. Really, you can use ANY shopping cart code out there, the bottom line is, when an order is processed, it has to communicate with an authorized processor.

The business will need a merchant account to process cards through a secured authority like Verisign. Once you have that, you can program your communication to their web services by using their Application Programming Interface which is provided to you. Of course the other piece of the puzzle here is having an SSL certificate and setting up your shopping cart to use a secured portion of your site.

I developed the entire e-commerce component for a new product we're working on using Verisigns' API. Prior to that I was afraid of e-commerce because I had no clue where to start. Little did I know that I already had all the pieces of the puzzle , I just needed to know how they were put together.

You will need:
1. Host that supports SSL
2. An SSL certificate
3. A Merchant account
4. A shopping cart on the SSL site that communicates to the processor.

 

Ok I have access 1 and 2 thats easy and I understand 3 ...as for 4...where can I get the script for the shopping cart? Or is that provided by the merchant? is that what this meant?("Once you have that, you can program your communication to their web services by using their Application Programming Interface which is provided to you")

Ps Hi again Kodo....Jodi is at it again!

 

regarding #4
Sometimes hosts have shopping carts. You can buy shopping carts or build your own.
The only thing I'm not 100% on (because I"m a developer not a salesperson ) is if you get the license for their web service component when you buy a merchant account or if it's extra.

I would visit www.verisign.com and see if they have more infomration on that piece of the puzzle.