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Ecommerce

Introduction
E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web.
In practice, this term and a newer term, e-business, are often used interchangeably. For online retail selling, the term e-tailing is sometimes used.
Such businesses began in 1995 and are expected by 2007 to generate sales in the USA of $ 105 billion.a
You create a website that promotes your products, obtain an Internet address, hire space on a web-hosting company, upload your pages, add a payment system and then use various promotion services to get your site noticed.
Overview Of How Ecommerce Works
Ecommerce is where consumers can purchase goods and services over the web using their credit card. The basic process of how this works is shown below.



A consumer visits your website and uses your online store to make a purchase. The transaction is conducted over a secure connection (SSL) to your web hosting server.

Payment Processing Gateway handles the secure, real time encrypted credit card information and co-ordinates the transaction

Merchant account processes the movement of funds

Funds are debited from the consumers credit card account

Funds are deposited into your designated bank account

Definition of Ecommerce Terms
• Commerce Service Providers (CSP)
CSPs are business or web sites that provide ecommerce solutions.
• Digital or Electronic Cash or E-cash or Ecash or Digital Money
These terms are also used interchangeably, and they refer to any of the various methods that allow a person to purchase goods or services by transmitting a number from one computer to another. The numbers are issued by a bank and represent sums of real money. Digital cash is anonymous and reusable. Unlike credit card transactions, the merchant does not know the identity of the shopper.
• Electronic Checks or Cheques
Customers pay for merchandise by writing an electronic check that is...