Operation Manual

WebPlus Advanced | 199
E-Commerce
Understanding e-commerce
E-commerce entails the buying and selling of goods on the Internet. It's
difficult to escape online retailing in any Internet session these days—you've
more than likely used some form of Internet shopping at some point, when
buying online CDs, books, holidays, etc. Any web site that supports this kind
of e-commerce activity will typically make use of a shopping cart system and
a payment processing system. A shopping cart is n virtual basket (think of a
supermarket basket) which stores your chosen items and is used in
conjunction with a payment processing system (taking the place of the
supermarket's checkout).
For major companies, the shopping cart technology is developed in-house
(maybe the payment processing is carried out by a third party company). For
smaller companies or organisations, the shopping cart is normally a brought-in
third-party solution due to the cost/resource limitations. There are many third-
party shopping cart providers that can be used—all account-based and
equipped to accept credit cards instead of using a traditional payment gateway
(e.g., by phone).
So where does WebPlus fit into all this? Firstly, WebPlus allows you to
choose one of several specially chosen shopping cart providers and, secondly,
it allows you to connect to the shopping cart provider via a form or link (i.e., a
simple button or any object's hyperlink) on the WebPlus page. Forms allow
for buying options (colours, quantity) to be set, as well as calculate tax rates,
shipping, bulk items, etc. Links offer simple one-click purchasing without
buying options. The features are provider-specific and as a result vary widely.
All shopping carts deal internationally - no additional files are need for this to
work.