Small Business eBusiness

[pbexpress]

I have a client that conducts about 60% of his business electronically.&nbsp;&nbsp;After reading many of the comments about what defines the total ebusiness outline, I have a question.<br><br>My client has a web site with a very nice shopping cart.&nbsp;&nbsp;However, the sale is relayed to him via email.&nbsp;&nbsp;Thus he must 1. print the order, 2. key in the credit card to a merchant machine, 3. key the order into his accounting/sales software (Peachtree).<br><br>We are investigating other front end sales oriented software.&nbsp;&nbsp;Any suggestions to making this entire process simpler?&nbsp;&nbsp;(The client is not very large.&nbsp;&nbsp;About 100 orders a day.)

 

[wduty]

That sounds a little unsecure to send credit-card numbers over email because some hacker could potentially intercept the content at several places. However, if your client is doing that much business and hasn't had any problems then I guess he or she is willing to take that risk.<br>Many ecommerce sites have some kind of online processing so that a customer can enter a credit card number which is then verified and charged right from the server so that all the seller has to do is look at a set of already processed orders, package the items, and mail them.<br>To do this however you have to have a page (or a section of the site) which receives the credit card number through a form submission, invokes a program on the server which contacts a payment processing service like Verisign which then either oks the credit card transaction and credits the merchant account of the seller's bank or sends back a denial message. If the processing goes ok then the order and user information (but usually not the creditcard number itself) are put into a database which the user seller can view online from a secure admin page or whatever. That is one approach which is possible in the case of a single client with one business which he or she runs independently.<br>Usually this area of the site is SSL encrypted for security reasons.<br> <p>--Will Duty<br><a href=mailto:wduty@radicalfringe.com>wduty@radicalfringe.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[wduty]

Problem is getting the info into the peachtree software since I assume the seller would want to have all business kept track of in the same accounting software the non-online business is stored. I was looking at the type of interface the peachtree software has. I assume it is probably something like the screenshot at<br><A HREF="

http://www.peachtree.com/first/html/ss_pfa7_receivepayments.cfm"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.peachtree.com/first/html/ss_pfa7_receivepayments.cfm</A><br>Since

this is a desktop application you could drag and drop stuff manually from your online site management tool which would save the credit card step, though it would be ideal to have an automatic interface with the Peachtree software but I don't know if that's possible without doing somekind of involved programming which inserts into a database etc. Peachtree appears to offer an integration software which links up a electronic storefront (created with one of their packages) with the peachtree accounting software:<br><br>At<br><br><A HREF="

http://www.peachtree.com/os/html/peachlink.cfm"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.peachtree.com/os/html/peachlink.cfm</A><br><br>I

found the line:<br><br>&quot;Giving you electronic storefront capabilities that integrate with Peachtree Accounting, Release 7.0 and Peachtree Complete Accounting, Release 7.0&quot;<br> <p>--Will Duty<br><a href=mailto:wduty@radicalfringe.com>wduty@radicalfringe.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[pbexpress]

Thanks.&nbsp;&nbsp;The negative of using Peachlink is that you have to use their program and their site.&nbsp;&nbsp;The restrictions are enormous.<br><br>After a meeting last pm, I think we are going to reprogram the entire site.&nbsp;&nbsp;Your suggestion for automatic credit card verification payment is good.&nbsp;&nbsp;We are going to do this.

 

[wduty]

Automatic processing is the way most larger ecommerce sites operate, and it is certainly the way I would go with what I would suggest to a client. But it does take time and has its own hassles. You need a relatively strong back end which means one or more programmers with decent experience, you have to worry about scalability which means a good programming structure, a good server (although if you are processing 100 orders a day it sounds like you have a good base already), and a knowledge of the shortcomings of whatever tool you're using (for example I do alot of asp and java and they have very different concerns). Also setting up the merchant account usually involves a bit of paperwork. Take a look at the Verisign Signio Suite for example. Make sure to look into the costs (Peachlink may be expensive but any credit card processing service is going to have costs as well). On the other hand what you are doing seems to be extending an existing site rather than building one from scratch, so it shouldn't be too bad.<br>But I've found that working with e-commerce a pretty interesting experience and so do most other people I've talked to who have. <br>-Good luck. <p>--Will Duty<br><a href=mailto:wduty@radicalfringe.com>wduty@radicalfringe.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[Guest_imported]

Have you ever thought of moving away from desktop software solutions to this problem? With respect to the front end sales oriented software you're talking about, have you looked into a customized web application to do the job?

 

[wduty]

That's kind of what I was suggesting. [sig]<p>--Will Duty<br><a href=mailto:wduty@radicalfringe.com>wduty@radicalfringe.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br> [/sig]

 

[pbexpress]

Thanks for the help. I will pass the info on to my client. His ecommerce is taking off beyond all expectations. In addition to the business, his request for catalogues is growing by 250 per week. Thus his contact base is growing. He is just now getting involved with search engines. We expect his sales to improve dramatically. [sig][/sig]

 

[TripapHoniCs]

pdexpress:: did your client do anything special to get as productive as he/she is? I am trying the same idea, only I have had a problem deciding whether or not I want to use a really well constructed, heavily customizable, prefabricated shopping-cart program or learn ColdFusion. I've heard it's not too hard. What is your take on the whole situation?

djTripapHoniCs. [sig][/sig]

 

[suesloan]

I would suggest you consider continuing a combination of online order taking and processing but still keep your customer and order information on your business's computers for doing things like catalog mailings and reporting.

There are a couple of ways to go, but the one I use is a combination of an eShowcase store with Order Desk Xpert as the &quot;back office&quot; software. Customers order through my store which puts the order information into a database on the web. I then have a download option to get a text file directly from the web server. This is safe because no orders go thru email at all! Then the Order Desk Xpert software has an import option which makes sure that customers are not duplicated in the customer database.

I currently save a lot of money by processing the credit cards using Order Desk and ICVerify with my own merchant account. I can either instantly verify a single order, or batch all the orders into ICVerify for approvals.

Order Desk provides all the invoices, labels, and envelopes I need to fulfill the order professionally.

Take a look at it on

http://www.odpro.com!

Sue Sloan

PS: Peachtree could be included in this by importing customer and order information from Order Desk, but I do not like doing &quot;double entry&quot;. I just post each month's gross sales to my accounting package and keep the details out of it! [sig][/sig]