The Basics?
In order for your web site to accept credit cards, debit cards and electronic checks (e-checks), you need to be aware of the following e-commerce basics.
Typically, what you need to set up e-commerce on your website is a Shopping Cart, a Payment Gateway Account, a Secure Socket Layer Certificate and an Internet Merchant Account. Simply Web Services can help you with all aspects of your e-commerce web site
What is a Shopping Cart?
A Shopping Cart is the code, script or program your web site uses to keep track of what your shopper wants to buy and then sends the sales totals to your Payment Gateway. In simple terms, think of the shopping cart in the terms of physical store. The shopping cart is the items on the shelves and the shopping cart the customer is pushing through the store. In e-commerce terms, it is simply the items in the store and the place to temporarily store those items until the customer pays for them. A shopping cart allows your customers to browse your shop, allows you to stock your Internet store, track customers and control inventory is you desire.