Web Hosting Guide (Chapter 4)

Chapters

1. What is a Web site?
2. What is Web hosting?
3. What is the procedure for building a Web presence?
4. What is E-Commerce?
   • Definition
   • Glossary of Terms
   • On-line Payment Processing
   • Security

    

5. Which hosting plan fits my needs?

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Definition

E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services across the Internet. An e-commerce site can be as simple as a catalog page with a phone number, or it can range all the way to a real-time credit card processing site where customers can purchase downloadable goods and receive them on the spot. E-commerce merchants can range from the small business with a few items for sale all the way to a large online retailer such as Amazon.com.

Glossary of Terms

• Ad Clicks
  Number of times that a viewer clicks on an ad banner.

• Address Verification
  Process used by a credit card processor or other party to verify that a customer's ordering address matches their records.

• Automated Clearing House
  An ACH transaction is an electronic fund transfer through the Federal Reserve Bank from a checking or savings account

• Authorization
  The process of checking the validity and available balance of a customer's credit card before the transaction can be accepted.

• Bandwidth
  The amount of information (Web pages, text, graphics, video, sound, etc) that is downloaded through a connection.

• Banner
  An interactive ad placed on a Web page that is linked to an external advertiser's Web site or another internal page within the same Web site.

• "Card Not Present" Merchant Account
  An account that allows merchants to process credit cards without a face-to-face transaction with the purchaser.

• Certificate Authority
  A Certificate Authority (CA) is a third party which verifies the identity of merchants and their sites. The certificate authority issues a certificate (also called a digital certificate or an authentication certificate) to an applicant company, which can then put the certificate up on its site.

• Commerce Server
  The server that manages and maintains all transactional and backend data for a commerce Web site.

• Cross Promotion
  The promotion of a Web site through other traditional forms of advertising such as magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, billboards, etc.

• Delayed Settlement Processing
  Once a transaction has been authorized, the merchant must ship the hard goods before a transaction can be settled. Delayed settlements are stored online until the merchant selects the transactions for settlement.

• Digital Certificate
  A Digital Certificate issued by a Certificate Authority certifies that a merchant and a particular Web site are connected, just as a photo on your driver's licence connects your identity with your personal details. A Digital Certificate verifies to the shopper that the virtual store is actually associated with a physical address and phone number which can increase the shopper's confidence in the authenticity of the merchant.

• Distribution Channel
  The method through which a product is sold including retailers, catalogers, Internet commerce Web sites, etc.

• Drop Ship
  The shipping of a product directly from the manufacturer to the customer without requiring the retailer to carry inventory.

• Electronic Software Distribution
  Software that can be purchased and downloaded directly from the Internet.

• Hit
  Each time a Web server sends a file to a browser, a "hit" is recorded in the server file logs.

• Home Page
  The first page through which a viewer usually enters a Web site.

• HTML
  Hyper Text Markup Language is the standardized language which allows Web browsers to interpret Web sites.

• HTTP
  Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a protocol which allows computers to communicate with each other.

• Keywords
  Words that may be used by viewers searching for information. Keywords can be purchased from search engine companies so that an appropriate ad banner may be displayed when a viewer searches for a particular word.

• Merchant Account
  A "bank account" established with a payment processor for the settlement of credit card transactions. Any merchant who wants to take credit card orders must establish a merchant account. Internet merchants need a "Card Not Present Merchant Account."

• Off-Line Transaction Processing
  Capture of order and credit card information for later authorization and transaction processing through a traditional card swipe terminal or through a computer.

• Order Confirmation
  An e-mail message notifying a customer that an order has been received and will be processed.

• Order Management System
  A system that accepts orders and initiates a process that results in the outbound shipment of a finished good.

• Real Time Credit Card Processing
  Online authorization of a credit card number in real time informing the merchant that the card has been approved.

• Settlement
  Once the goods have been shipped to the customer, the merchant can key a transaction for settlement at which time the customer's credit card is charged for the transaction and the proceeds are deposited into the merchant account.

• SSL
  Secure Socket Layer is an encryption technology on the server that scrambles important data such as credit card numbers and order information when it is being stored or passed from one computer to another.

• Shipping Confirmation
  An e-mail message that notifies a customer that an order has been shipped.

• URL
  Uniform Resource Locator which describes the "address" for a document on the Internet