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E-Commerce Primer - Page 2

© Faith Sloan

Once you've set up your product catalog, you want the customer to be able to shop until she drops with ease. Typically, when a customer shops in your online store, products are put into a "shopping cart/basket". These product selections are stored in a database so the customer can review what has been selected before check out. The customer should also be able to change the quantity of items or to even delete items in her cart.

Many consumers are still wary about entering their personal information into a web-based form. The very same person who is not confident in internet security will provide all of her personal information to a phone sales representative that she's never met and never thought about requesting proof of identity. As Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystem said defending the security of networked computing, "You can go and find a mailbox right now, open the door to a tin box -- tin door, no lock -- with unencrypted information in English, sealed in a paper-thin envelope with spit, yet people are worried about online privacy.'

No matter how much security technology you implement, you still need to give your customers a sense of psychological security. It's not the logic -- it's psychological. Some sites provide a graphic link to VeriSign's verification service, for example. When a customer clicks on the link, Verisign will let you know whether the site is secure.

In addition, customers must be able to select payment type and the e-commerce software must verify their ability to pay. This can involve credit cards, electronic cash, or purchase orders. Next month I will discuss the available specialized software which can verify the purchaser and the purchase.

I will also touch upon some of the standard security protocols used by many e-commerce sites today. The more security protocols supported by an e-commerce package, the better.

In terms of order processing, there can be a plethora of details associated with shipping and taxes. The e-commerce solution you choose should support third-party shipping modules and tax calculation packages. I'll talk about these modules next month.

There are many types of calculations associated with order processing. This can run the gamut from discounts, coupons, and volume breaks. Most e-commerce software can do some of these calculations. You should check your needs against the list of supported calculations, or at least be able to easily add customized calculations.

Finally, managing customer information is a crucial part of an

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