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Sunday, December 10, 2006
E-commerce software
I thought that for the first topic it would be good to write a brief definition of what we at Shopfitter mean with the term e-commerce software.
Lots of different systems, applications and services provide website owners with the capability to create an online catalogue (or catalog for US purposes) and shopping cart.
But these are just part of the requirements of selling online. We feel that e-commerce software should give its users the facilities to build an entire website and not just the product, cart and checkout pages.
A proper e-commerce software system should also provide 'back-end' functionality. What that means is a secure order processing system that stores order details: customer contact and delivery details, payment method (and there should be a choice - more later). It should also store all details both for the shop owners records and to comply with any statutory regulations.
Then there's the need for a confirmation and notification facility. In general, this is fine by e-mail; a summary of the order details, price and a unique order number should be included but no payment details, especially credit card numbers - e-mails are not secure.
The security of an e-commerce software system will be of paramount importance to customers of goods and services online shops, therefore the system should have Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) - that is, connects to the personal and payment details pages via an HTTPS web address.
This will then adhere to Data Protection legislation in most (if not all) international regions.
To provide more reassurance to both the online shopper and webshop owner the online order server should hold a security certificate from a recognised body; in the case of https://orders3.shopfitter.com this is from Thawte, one of the best known in the business.
That more or less covers what we mean by 'e-commerce software' - a full end to end website building program that includes e-commerce and non selling pages, a secure order processing and customer details storage system and a confirmation/notification system, usually by e-mail.
Lots of different systems, applications and services provide website owners with the capability to create an online catalogue (or catalog for US purposes) and shopping cart.
But these are just part of the requirements of selling online. We feel that e-commerce software should give its users the facilities to build an entire website and not just the product, cart and checkout pages.
A proper e-commerce software system should also provide 'back-end' functionality. What that means is a secure order processing system that stores order details: customer contact and delivery details, payment method (and there should be a choice - more later). It should also store all details both for the shop owners records and to comply with any statutory regulations.
Then there's the need for a confirmation and notification facility. In general, this is fine by e-mail; a summary of the order details, price and a unique order number should be included but no payment details, especially credit card numbers - e-mails are not secure.
The security of an e-commerce software system will be of paramount importance to customers of goods and services online shops, therefore the system should have Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) - that is, connects to the personal and payment details pages via an HTTPS web address.
This will then adhere to Data Protection legislation in most (if not all) international regions.
To provide more reassurance to both the online shopper and webshop owner the online order server should hold a security certificate from a recognised body; in the case of https://orders3.shopfitter.com this is from Thawte, one of the best known in the business.
That more or less covers what we mean by 'e-commerce software' - a full end to end website building program that includes e-commerce and non selling pages, a secure order processing and customer details storage system and a confirmation/notification system, usually by e-mail.
posted by Shopfitter # 9:18 PM 
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I have thought about getting an e-commerce site but these have been the drawbacks in my mind:-
I have video on my site and a WordPress blog and Simple machines forum. Can an e-commerce site host all of those? Can I change content and add videos myself to a new e-commerce site?
Security - I know someone who had an E-commerce site with a payment gateway from their bank and someone bought lots of things from her with a stolen credit card and she lost out. The bank didn't want to know.
I sell technical products and I like people to call me to discuss them first before buying. Less returns that way.
I'd be interested in your comments.
Peter
www.speechempoweredcomputing.co.uk
I have video on my site and a WordPress blog and Simple machines forum. Can an e-commerce site host all of those? Can I change content and add videos myself to a new e-commerce site?
Security - I know someone who had an E-commerce site with a payment gateway from their bank and someone bought lots of things from her with a stolen credit card and she lost out. The bank didn't want to know.
I sell technical products and I like people to call me to discuss them first before buying. Less returns that way.
I'd be interested in your comments.
Peter
www.speechempoweredcomputing.co.uk
Hi Peter,
An e-commerce site is just a website with a catalogue and order processing functionality, much as you forum and blog provide their own specialist features. The hosting is provided for web pages of whatever kind are required.
Having said that, the Shopfitter system will allow you to run video content within it, the simplest way is to upload your video yo YouTube and then publish a feed of it on your site, for an example see the lower half of the page of one of our users: http://www.valplast.info/dentists_information.htm
Security does remain an issue with any form of card payment, this is true in both the real and online world, however, by using a reputable payment gateway or processor the risks can be minimised. Any questionable transaction will be flagged by the payment gateway as being at risk and then provides you with the ability to choose whether to fulfill the order or not. Chargebacks do occur when taking any card payment and it's up to you to decide whether to take the risk of a suspect transaction or not - our advice is not to. Many 'extra checks' can be made but fraudsters seem very genuine when you talk to them. If in doubt contact the customer and ask for an alternative payment method such as a cheque and then wait for it to clear before fulfilling the order. As you've mentioned, the banks are very averse to risk and legislation only protects the consumer and not the vendor.
That's no reason not to sell online, you just have to understand the risks and take steps to mitigate them, in reality it's no more risky than selling by telephone, mail order or even in person, just a different procedure.
Prospective customers who call you are more likely to get the product they want because they've validated their requirements before making their purchase, it's definitely worthwhile supporting your online sales activities with telephone communication where the customer wants or needs it.
An e-commerce site is just a website with a catalogue and order processing functionality, much as you forum and blog provide their own specialist features. The hosting is provided for web pages of whatever kind are required.
Having said that, the Shopfitter system will allow you to run video content within it, the simplest way is to upload your video yo YouTube and then publish a feed of it on your site, for an example see the lower half of the page of one of our users: http://www.valplast.info/dentists_information.htm
Security does remain an issue with any form of card payment, this is true in both the real and online world, however, by using a reputable payment gateway or processor the risks can be minimised. Any questionable transaction will be flagged by the payment gateway as being at risk and then provides you with the ability to choose whether to fulfill the order or not. Chargebacks do occur when taking any card payment and it's up to you to decide whether to take the risk of a suspect transaction or not - our advice is not to. Many 'extra checks' can be made but fraudsters seem very genuine when you talk to them. If in doubt contact the customer and ask for an alternative payment method such as a cheque and then wait for it to clear before fulfilling the order. As you've mentioned, the banks are very averse to risk and legislation only protects the consumer and not the vendor.
That's no reason not to sell online, you just have to understand the risks and take steps to mitigate them, in reality it's no more risky than selling by telephone, mail order or even in person, just a different procedure.
Prospective customers who call you are more likely to get the product they want because they've validated their requirements before making their purchase, it's definitely worthwhile supporting your online sales activities with telephone communication where the customer wants or needs it.
Thanks for that information. I appreciate it.
So concerning video, are you saying I can embed flash video directly into the page of the shopfitter site? I know about the link to YouTube. The video quality isn't good enough for me that way. I load my videos on www.screencast.com as online viewing quality is the same as the original - no loss of quality at all. I can paste a link to the video on screencast in the same way as you publish a feed on your site to YouTube.
Thanks again
Peter
www.speechempoweredcomputing.co.uk
So concerning video, are you saying I can embed flash video directly into the page of the shopfitter site? I know about the link to YouTube. The video quality isn't good enough for me that way. I load my videos on www.screencast.com as online viewing quality is the same as the original - no loss of quality at all. I can paste a link to the video on screencast in the same way as you publish a feed on your site to YouTube.
Thanks again
Peter
www.speechempoweredcomputing.co.uk
Hi again Peter,
I've never looked at Screencast but there would be no problem just pasting in the code in a similar way to YouTube. Shopfitter builds XHTML web pages in much the same way as if they were manually coded.
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I've never looked at Screencast but there would be no problem just pasting in the code in a similar way to YouTube. Shopfitter builds XHTML web pages in much the same way as if they were manually coded.
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