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The
term electronic commerce (or e-commerce) is the most common name for
the practice of doing business over the Internet. You may have heard
other terms such as Internet Business, Online Business, E-business,
Internet Commerce, Web Commerce, and etc. These names all refer to
selling products and services to customers using a Web store (or cyberstore).
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To
build your electronic commerce solution, there are several basic
products/services that you need to create a Web store: a catalog
builder with shopping cart features, a Web hosting company such
as Cinema Tech, a payment processing service for real-time credit
card transactions, and a merchant account to transfer funds. Once
you have created your Web store and have placed it online, you can
see the operational aspects of the electronic commerce process in
action.
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1.
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A
consumer places an order on your Web Store using SSL (Secure Sockets
Layer) encryption.
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2.
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The
consumer’s payment information is sent to a payment-processing center,
and then forwarded to a merchant bank or third-party processor.
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3.
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The
merchant bank transfers the payment information to the cardholder’s
(consumer’s) bank for authorization.
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4.
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The
cardholder’s bank sends an authorization to your Web Store by way
of the merchant bank and payment-processing center.
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5.
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Finally,
an order confirmation is sent to the consumer.
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The
above process takes approximately 20-30 seconds to complete. If
the transaction is approved, funds are usually transferred to your
merchant bank account within 48-72 hours.
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