Operation Manual

Adding Dynamic Content 279
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 provider and
a payment processing system. A shopping cart is a 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 organizations, 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 (depending on
WebPlus version) and, secondly, it allows you to connect to the shopping cart
provider via a form or link 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.