Need help understanding how to setup eCommerce site

[AlwaysWilling]

Hello, I need some help in understanding what the process is in developing an eCommerce site. I know I need a vendor for processing the creditcard payments, and I also need a merchant account. But thats all I know. I don't know how the merchant account and the processing vendor interact, who does what and how, and how the money gets transferred into the clien't bank account.

Finally, can anyone reccommend a decent vendor AND a merchant company? SOmeone that isn't expensive and has a good reputation.

Thanks a bunch!!!!!

 

[LordGarf]

some use paypall or something like that. Or

https://www.setsystems.com/

Do you know php or asp? I'm shure can can link anything with one of those server side scripting languages.

kind regards.

tank you,

best regards,
Lord_Garfield

 

[ChrisHirst]

It may depend where you are in the world who/what you can use.

But you may not need a merchant account initially. If the payments are low, using a payment gateway could be cheaper option and move to a merchant account later.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[AlwaysWilling]

Thank you for responding. I am in USA, and I am using Coldfusion as my programming language. I might use paypal as well as CC payments.

Can you guys tell me what a "merchant account" does and what the "processing company" does? And, who is responsible for transferring the monies from the sale to the client's bank account? I feel like I have the basic knowledge but not the specifics. I called authorize.net and they swear their the best and they charge .10 per transaction. And other sites claim their the best and they charge .25 a transactions and $10 monthly reporting.

Can anyone reccommend a good company to use as my merchant and my cc processor? I had done a google search and came back with some companies (like authorize.net) but don't know if thats a good one or if there are better ones or cheaper ones. What companies do most of you use?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[AlwaysWilling]

Also, what is the precedence in the hierarchy? Is it: my site -> merchant acct -> processing company -> merchant acct -> my site?

In other words, when the user clicks the "purchase now" button what happens first? Sorry if the questions are to dumb.

 

[ChrisHirst]

authorize are definitely one of the top processors. not used their services personally due to the expanse of water in between

all that happens with a merchant account is the CC payment company process the payments through your merchant account. Having the merchant number simply means you could use any CC processor without needing a different account with each of them, and you normally get the payment in your bank within 3 or 4 days rather than 21 or 30 days.
Often your bank will arrange a merchant account for you and you provide the payment processor with the merchant number.
Payment process at the simplest if
Form on product page POSTs the details to the CC Proc gateway.
user is taken to secure site to complete the transaction.
user returns to your "Thanks for that" page




Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[Foamcow]

You might want to look at packages such as ZenCart (

http://www.zencart.com)

and OsCommerce (

http://www.oscommerce).

They are customisable, ecommerce engines that have a number of payment gateway and shipping plugins available.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Buy Languedoc wines in the UK

 

[AlwaysWilling]

ChrisHirst, thank you. Let me see if I can summarize it accurately based on your answer.

1. The user buys profuct on the site.
2. The user (once finished) clicks the "Purchase" button.
3. The user is taken to a form (on my site) where they fill out their information, such as name, email, shipping address, credit card information
4. The user then clicks the "check out" button.
5. At this point, the backend code, will connect with the processing company gateway (such as authroize.net) that will make an attempt to charge the users' creditcard, and if all is good, then the processing company will charge the creditcard the purchase amount, and I will log in my database the transaction information.
6. After the backend code is processed, the user will see either a "Thank You" or a "There as an error" detailed message.

Then, after the transaction has been successfully been submitted. The CC company (like VISA) will communicate with the merchant account for the transfer of funds.

Is that correct? If so, then the proeccsing company and the merchant accounts don't really communicate, do they?

Thank you.

 

[AlwaysWilling]

Foamcow, thanks for the links, I will check them out. I already have my own shopping cart, but if there are existing carts out there that already have the checkout/processing code built in, then I guess I can buy one of those to cut back on time and at the same time see how the actual process is coded and learn from the code.

I also found cfshopkart that does paypal as well as other CC processing.

 

[ChrisHirst]

that's pretty much it with one proviso, Only collect the credit card info IF you are using a secure connection (HTTPS) on your host. Otherwise let the gateway site get that info.

The merchant provider and CC processor do communicate but as a backend to the process, so your site is not involved in that.


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[Foamcow]

You don't need to buy them, they are Open Source

I'll warn you though, the code for ZenCart is a bit crazy in places.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Buy Languedoc wines in the UK

 

[AlwaysWilling]

ChrisHirst,

The merchant provider and CC processor do communicate but as a backend to the process, so your site is not involved in that.

So that means the CC processor and merchant communication has nothing to do with me. So I don't code for that. They do what they need to do and place the money where I tell them to, right?

Yes, my site (and any other site) will be HTTPS. If in any case it does not have HTTP, I wlll let the gateway site (like Authorize.net or another) capture the CC info. If I do it that way does the logic change (that) much for me? Would I need to pass the productid's, quantity's, price's, total to the gateway site for them to process that sale? I mean it makes sense I need to, or how else would the gateway company know how much to charge and for what items and quantity, right?

Thanks for the very helpful answers.

 

[AlwaysWilling]

Foamcow, awesome. I will check them both out and experiment with them. Thanks!

 

[AlwaysWilling]

Foamcow, I looked at ZenCart and OsCommerce and they both seem to PHP-based. I don't know PHP. I use coldfusion. Which sucks because they both seem very nice. I wish they had something similar in coldfusion.

 

[Foamcow]

Bah yes, of course. I forgot you are using ColdFusion.
Sorry.

FYI ZenCart is a fork of the OsCommerce code. With a nicer templating system and some extras built in.

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Buy Languedoc wines in the UK