Ecommerce Solutions: FAQ
What
is Ecommerce?
Ecommerce is the term used to describe the selling of goods and services
over the Internet. In the most general sense, simply creating a Web site
that advertises and promotes your products can be considered “ecommerce.”
In recent years, however, ecommerce has become much more sophisticated.
Ecommerce businesses now offer elaborate online stores where customers
can browse thousands of products, place an order, select the desired shipping
method and pay for their purchases using their credit cards.
How
many products can I sell in my online store?
You can sell any number of products on your site, from just a few items
to thousands. If you are interested in setting up an online store using
Burningbulb's store front our Ecommerce hosting plan is recommended. The
Ecommerce package lets you list up to 10 products but can easily be upgraded
to handle 25 or even 100 products.
If you need even more products Miva Merchants, a commercial grade store-front
application, can be purchased and used on your site. Miva Merchant is
supported by Burningbulb and recommended for large store front applications.
It has the potential to handle thousands of for sale items all through
an easy to use interface.
Can
I sell products that can be downloaded, such as music?
Burningbulb's web hosting accounts are not configured for the purposes
of distributing software and/or multimedia products. If you wish to distribute
software and/or multimedia files a dedicated server would need to be used.
Please contact the Burningbulb Sales Department for more information.
What
do I need to set up an ecommerce website?
What you need depends upon a number of factors, such as how you want to
handle transactions and what types of security you want to provide.
For example, if you don’t need to accept credit cards or process
transactions online, all you need is a Web site that lists your products,
provides some sort of order form and lists the address where your customers
should send their payments.
However, if you want a full-featured online store that can process credit
card transactions in “real time” in a secure environment you
will need a shopping cart, an Internet-ready merchant account, a payment
gateway and an SSL certificate.
How
much does it cost to set up an online store?
Ecommerce plans may range anywhere from $30.00 a month to $50.00 a month,
depending upon the number of products you want to sell, the traffic you
anticipate and the features and functionalities you want to provide to
your customers.
There are other costs associated with an online store, too. For example,
you will need a shopping cart and, if you want to be able to accept credit
cards and process those transactions online, you will need a merchant
account and a payment gateway service. Typically, there are initial setup
fees as well as on-going costs for these services that will be in addition
to your hosting costs.
I
already have a website with Burningbulb. Can I integrate an online store
into it?
Yes. Burningbulb makes it easy for you to add ecommerce to your site.
You can order a plan that @includes ecommerce or, if you are already a
Burningbulb customer, you can upgrade your account directly through your
control panel.
Once you have built your online store, you can easily integrate it into
your existing site by either providing a link to your new store front
or incorporating your products into your existing site’s pages.
What
is Alacart?
Alacart is an e-commerce shopping cart designed for Burningbulb. It contains
all of the functionality required to setup and run an internet shopping
site. For more information on Alacart and its functionality please refer
to the Alacart manual.
What
is MivaMerchant?
Miva Merchant is a dynamic browser based storefront development and management
system that allows merchants to create and administrate multiple online
stores from anywhere in the world. Miva Merchant has a complete set of
wizards to simplify the process of building your store. The browser based
administration interface provides access to an array of more sophisticated
tools to maintain your catalog. Upsell merchandising and order fulfillment
are @included. And Miva's modular architecture enables you with deep-down
customization for your storefront.
Will
I be able to customize the "look and feel" of my online store?
Yes. Both Burningbulb's Alacart and Miva Merchant enable you to quickly
and easily customize the appearance of your store. You design the layout
of your pages, select the colors and fonts you want to use and add graphics
and text as you like. Plus, you can use HTML to enhance the text on any
of your Web pages.
What
are my options for handling transactions?
You have a number of options for handling transactions. The most basic
approach is to handle all of your transactions offline. For example, you
could publish your address and have your customers send their orders along
with a check or money order directly to you. You could also collect your
customers’ credit card information via email or phone and then process
the credit card transactions offline using your retail merchant account.
These are probably not the best approaches because one the main reasons
customers shop at an online store is for the speed and convenience it
provides. To increase the chances that customers will want to shop at
your online store, it should be able to accept and process credit card
transactions online and in “real time.”
What
are third-party online credit card processors?
If you want to be able to accept credit cards but do not want to handle
these yourself, you can use a third-party online credit card processor.
When your customers want to purchase a product, they click a link that
takes them to the third-party’s Web site. There, they will submit
their order and credit card information, which is then processed by the
third-party processor. Essentially, these processors act as resellers.
They may charge you a variety of fees for this service, including an initial
set up fee, monthly fees and/or per-transaction fees.
While outsourcing your online transactions may seem appealing, you should
consider the fact that it will be obvious to your customers that their
transactions are being handled not by your company but by a third-party.
What
do I need to handle "real time" credit card transactions myself?
If you want to handle online credit card transactions yourself, you will
need an Internet-ready merchant account, a payment gateway service and
an SSL certificate.
What
is a merchant account and how do I get one?
A merchant account enables you to accept credit cards as payment for the
purchase of goods and services. There are different types of merchant
accounts. For example, if you have a traditional “brick and mortar”
store, you can get a retail merchant account. If you want to accept credit
cards on your Web site, however, you need a specialized type of merchant
account known as an “Internet-ready” merchant account.
Internet-ready merchant accounts enable you to handle Internet transactions
in "real time" without any human intervention. Because the risk
of credit card fraud is greater when you are accepting credit cards over
the Internet, these specialized merchant accounts also provide additional
checks that can significantly reduce the chance of credit card fraud.
Once the transactions are processed, the merchant account provider transfers
the funds received from the credit card transactions from your merchant
account to your bank account.
A number of companies offer Internet-ready merchant accounts. Burningbulb
recommends:
• CyberCash
• Authorize.Net
• VeriSign Pay Flow Pro
I
already have a merchant account. Can I use it with Burningbulb's ecommerce
plan?
Yes. If you already have an Internet-ready merchant account you can use
it with Burningbulb's ecommerce plans as long as it supports one of the
following payment methods:
• CyberCash
• Authorize.Net
• VeriSign Pay Flow Pro
What
is a payment gateway? How do I find one?
A payment gateway is a service that connects your online store with your
merchant account provider. This service reads the information from the
order forms and translates that information for the merchant account.
The payment gateway also verifies that the customer’s credit card
account has the necessary credit available for the purchase.
You can obtain a payment gateway separately from your merchant account,
however you may find it simpler to choose a merchant account provider
that also offers a payment gateway.
How
can I assure my customers that their transactions are secure?
Obviously, if your customers will be submitting their credit card information
to you online they will want to know that this information is safe. If
they are not comfortable with the security your site offers, they will
probably not buy products from you.
The best way to alleviate your customers’ concerns is to secure
your site using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). When a site is secured with
SSL—the standard form of encryption currently used on the Web—visitors
will see a special symbol in their browser window that indicates the site
is secure. Visitors can also tell that a page is secured by looking at
the URL. A secure page’s URL begins with the letters “HTTPS”
instead of the standard “HTTP.”
What
is SSL?
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a method of ensuring that information submitted
through your Web site is secure and cannot be accessed by unauthorized
users. When a site offers an SSL-secured form, the information submitted
via that form (typically credit card information) is encrypted using a
special “certificate key” and then decrypted with another
key after it has been transmitted.
When users access a site secured with SSL using either Netscape or Internet
Explorer, a symbol displays in their browser windows indicating that the
site is secure.
What
is an SSL Certificate? How do I get one?
An SSL Certificate, or a digital certificate, is an electronic document
that contains the information necessary to establish a secure SSL connection.
When used in credit card transactions, the Web site collecting the credit
card information and the site to which the information is being transmitted
must both have an SSL Certificate.
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