natimage Posted January 30, 2004 Posted January 30, 2004 I'm a total noob when it comes to this ecommerce stuff, so please be patient! Let's say I have a Quickbooks merchant account already set up. I'm assuming that if I build by own shopping cart (with agora or something like that) that I will also have to get a SSL certificate...and a payment gateway????? Another question...does anyone have anything good or bad to say about CCNow and Mal's eCommerce services??? All of this is really confusing right now...having just recently learned about IPB and COPPERMINE within a week and a half!!!!! Quote
natimage Posted January 31, 2004 Author Posted January 31, 2004 ...hoping this got caught up in rush hour forum traffic this morning and just got lost???? Quote
surefire Posted January 31, 2004 Posted January 31, 2004 I'm sure others will chime in with their info, but here's my two cents. The most professional, independent way to do it, is also sometimes the most challengin, which IMHO, would be your own ssl and mrechant account. The shopping cart would be set up to transmit the data securely to the merchant account where it should be instantly processed, and the results returned securely to your site where the shopping cart gives your user feedback on the success/failure of the purchase and sends a receipt to them by email (without their credit card numbers on it) That's not the only way to do it though. As you mentioned, there are numerous payment processors out there that provide the secure connection and payment processor, sometimes even the cart, all in one. Who you go with is a matter of preference. But your shopping cart would basically do the same thing up until the time of transaction, when at that point, the customer would leave your site (even if they don't know it) as data is posted to the payment processing service, a ssl connection is made, credit card info is given, and then they are sent back to your site where the rest continues as I described above. IMHO, here are your choices ssl & merchant account long setup time more initial cost lower ongoing cost if you have a high volume of sales more complicated to set up more professional paysystems, ccnow, clickbank, et al. quicker setup lower initial cost higher ongoing cost if you have a high sales volume lower ongoing cost if you have weak sales less complicated to set up less professional Ta da... I'm sure someone will chime in to give you a different version, but that's what I've learned from experience. Quote
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