eCommerce

eCommerce is a fancy term for saying “We sell stuff on-line!”.  For most eCommerce websites, that means including an on-line shopping cart.

What is an on-line shopping cart?

A shopping cart is the software that allows a website visitor to add items from your website to a virtual “cart”, just like when shopping at your grocery store.  Once the customer is done shopping, they can “check-out” by creating an account, entering shipping and billing information, include payment options, and then complete the purchase.

One of the most famous eCommerce websites is Amazon.com.

Are a shopping cart and catalog the same software?

No. The catalog is the software that allows a non-programmer to maintain the product list, update prices, and change descriptions and pictures of the products. The shopping cart tracks what is purchased and handles the buying.

There are many primitive shopping carts that do NOT include a catalog. What this means is that your list of products is kept manually by the programmer for the website.  While this works for an organization that doesn’t change products very often, it is not acceptable for most customers.

An example of where it works is a membership organization that only has three member levels: individual, corporate, and government.  For this example, it  is an acceptable alternative, but as soon as your product list gets past 10 items, or you change pricing often, then the catalog is essential.

NeoNexus only uses shopping carts that ALSO include catalog software.

Does NeoNexus help customers set up an eCommerce website?

YES! We have many customers that have eCommerce websites.  They range from organizations that only want their customers to pay their annual dues, to complete on-line product sales of thousands of different products.

What kind of shopping cart software does NeoNexus support?

NeoNexus uses a variety of shopping cart software depending on the needs of the customer. Software we use includes the following:

Shop Script (www.shop-script.com)
WP Shop (http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/)
Magento Commerce (http://www.magentocommerce.com/)
OS Commerce (http://www.oscommerce.com/)

We also have a complete custom shopping cart that allows us to do things such as edit a business card or greeting card (change text and photos) in real time PRIOR to purchasing it.  We don’t recommend our custom cart to many customers, but it can come in handy for specialty requests.

NeoNexus is excited about Magento Commerce.  It is a relatively newcomer to the market, but it is offering a lot of advanced tools that the older software does not yet support, such as:

• complex product configurations (options with options)
• support for over 50 payment gateways
• advanced marketing tools to get existing customers to become repeat buyers
• support for multiple stores (food products store separate from a clothing store), yet all managed through the same interface
• multiple languages and currencies

If you want a state of the art eCommerce website, then Magento is a great choice.

Many on-line store websites look like a supermarket tabloid.  Can you make my on-line store look cool?

YES! The software we use is open source, so we can completely modify it to look and feel any way you want!  Even if you have a website already built, we can integrate your website into the shopping cart software so your shopping cart looks identical to the rest of your website.

What is an Internet Merchant Account (IMA)?

An internet merchant account is how a website visitor’s credit card is connected to the banking industry.  It verifies whether or not a credit card is valid and processes the payment into an account.  It is effectively an on-line bank account. All on-line shopping carts must use some kind of IMA to accept payment.

Does NeoNexus take care of my Internet Merchant Account (IMA)?

Since money is handled by the IMA, you do NOT want your website company with access to your bank account. NeoNexus will help you through the process, but the IMA will be in your name.

Does NeoNexus recommend which Internet Merchant Account (IMA) I should use?

NeoNexus does make recommendations. We also will work with your local bank if they are entering the internet merchant account business.  NeoNexus uses PayPal Standard, PayPal Pro, Authorize.net, and First Data, among others.

The advantage of PayPal Standard is that there are no monthly fees; only per transactions fees. The disadvantage is that the website visitor leaves your website temporarily to pay at PayPal’s website, and then you return.

Many people think PayPal options ONLY allow a customer to pay with a PayPal account. That is NOT correct. PayPal accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover cards.

Are the credit card transactions secure?

On-line security is always a concern, especially in these days of identify theft crime on the rise. There are several ways that security is implemented.

• The credit card information is NOT stored in the database of the shopping cart.  It is kept in computer memory temporarily while the transaction is processed.  Once the transaction is done, the credit card information is deleted.  Even if someone hacked the website, they would NOT see a list of customer credit card numbers.
• We recommend using an SSL certificate.  SSL is encryption that scrambles the data between the website visitor’s computer and the website, so that any data that is intercepted between the two systems looks like garbage data.  Also, using an SSL requires authentication by the issuer, so the website visitor is assured by a third party that the company selling something has been verified.
• We use Linux servers to store our data instead of WIndows.  While the security industry will still argue the point from a technical perspective, the statistics support that Linux servers are hacked less than Windows.

There are additional security measures that can be taken, including HIPPA certified hosting and 24/7 monitoring of the systems by third party security companies.

Located in West Virginia and North Carolina, we offer professional eCommerce web design and magento commerce programming services.