Hello everybody!I want to start my own internet business,and i want to ask for your advices.What should i know first of all,what are the details of e-commerce terminology etc.I want to know what is merchant accounts,transfering gateways etc.Thx much!

Welcome to the forums Sidorino!

A merchant account basically allows you to accept credit cards on your website.

An electronic payment gateway is the virtual connectivity between your site and Visanet, First Data, AmEx, etc to help verify the transaction. Think of it as similar to the POS terminal in the commissary.

The best thing - read thru some of the threads on this board. You will see a lot of people giving advice. Most of it is the same advice as well since it is asked quite a few times

Originally posted by Sidorino
Hello everybody!I want to start my own internet business,and i want to ask for your advices.What should i know first of all,what are the details of e-commerce terminology etc.I want to know what is merchant accounts,transfering gateways etc.Thx much!

Welcome to WHT.

Go through the threads here at WHT as already adviced, and then make some search on google there are alot of "helping websites" there.

Welcome to the forums, Sidorino!

Another suggestion - if you could post a bit more about the type of Internet business you are starting and/or what pieces you have put together thus far, that would also be helpful so that the community can let you know about any specifics that might apply to your specific type of biz.

You don't have to take my suggestion as you may not like it, but: Browse and be an active member of these forums and other it related forums for a year or so and once you feel comfortable with the internet and don't have to ask these questions then start thinking about running a business. Sorry if my advice seems rude, but running an internet business is the same as running any other business. People think they can just hop on the internet and start running a business. But it's the same as running (hypothetical) say a fast food resturaunt. Just because you can order a burger and fries in the drive thru of McDonalds doesn't mean you can all of the sudden hop on the band waggon and start owning a McDonalds.

Don't get me wrong I'm not flaming you at all, just trying to stress the meaning of time. Learn the field as time goes on and soon enough you'll be ready to start your own business. Btw, welcome to the forums; You're going to love it here.

Originally posted by PiMPaRSeBiSh
Sorry if my advice seems rude, but running an internet business is the same as running any other business. People think they can just hop on the internet and start running a business. But it's the same as running (hypothetical) say a fast food resturaunt. Just because you can order a burger and fries in the drive thru of McDonalds doesn't mean you can all of the sudden hop on the band waggon and start owning a McDonalds.



I think you misunderstood me,i ve got my business in real life,so i know what it is.I`m selling sculptures.But now i want to provide my business on the Web,so i just asked for the main aspects of exactly E-COMMERCE.That`s it,it`s difficult to find what i need,if i don`t know what to search for.That`s why i made the post in here.;)

Hi Sidorino,

Regarding your online sales of sculptures, here are a few things that come to mind immediately - to help you in your planning.

First, you will need a shopping cart system setup. This is the system used for you to show your available sculptures online and allow an online customer to click and select the one(s) that they want.

Depending on your anticipated volume, you may or may not need any kind of real-time inventory control. If you are selling to consumers and just getting rolling, a basic shopping cart is probably all that you need. osCommerce, ZenCart or even a cart that comes included with a payment gateway would likely be fine.

The one thing that you'll want to figure out is how you will be delivering the sculptures. If you are shipping them, you need to make sure your shopping cart has the ability to calculate that part according to your needs.

Then... you will need a Payment Gateway & Merchant Account. The Payment Gateway is the Internet-equivalent of a credit card swipe machine that you see at a local store... it interacts with the processing network attached to your Merchant Account and then your Merchant Account handles the transfer of funds from the cardholders account into your own local bank account. (There is much more behind the scenes on this but that is the process in a nutshell)

Another think to think about is your order verification & fraud control. Depending on the cost of your sculptures, my guess is that some might be fairly expensive... so if that is the case, you'll want to make sure you build in AVS, CVV and possibly even additional verification methods such as a phone callback - prior to shipping out a sale.

This way you avoid the likelihood of someone using a stolen credit card to purchase from you, receive a product and then jump ship and resell it for a profit while the legitimate cardholder charges it back.

The good news is that while some of the above may seem complicated - it is readily possible to get everything setup under from a single source these days and a lot of U.S. merchant processors offer all of the above in a bundled solution.

Hopefully this info is helpful to you - if you have any other questions or ideas that come to mind, this forum is definitely a great place to get answers to them. :)

Sorry, I accidentaly misstook your inquiry for a web hosting related startup.

PiMPaRSeBiSh , thx anyway!cdgcommerce,can you please tell me a bit more about the security of all the actions provided.I mean transfering money,and as you said the possibility of someone to buy my stuff using false credit card etc.

Selling your sculptures online - could prove interesting. Depending on how they might look, etc - could be somewhat profitable to you.

I take it most of these are already done? Do you have some type of an inventory? If not, how long does it take you to "complete one"?

As for fraud, the best one is your gut feeling. If it does not feel right, do not complete the order. If you receive an order that is from an IP in Canada, but the buyer is in China, and the billing address is in Beverly Hills, California, you might want to think twice about sending out your piece.

If they want it shipped over night, this is sometime cause for concern. They might have a few orders placed with you. They hope you see the dollar signs. Always take a few minutes and verify the information. Call them or even better, fax an credit card authorization form.

There are some finished works and there also is an ability to make the sculpture on your order.So actually there is an inventory.So,you say that there is no "proven" way to find out if the client is "safe".

Specifically, there is never any 100% way to ensure the validity of an order - but you can pretty much get it to a 95-99% by taking the steps outlined here in this thread.

For a high ticket sale, if you require a 100% AVS & CVV match, call back the customer to verify a valid phone # and have them fax a credit card authorization form with the front of the card & their signature on it - and the IP address and everything on the order matches up... you should be ok.

You may also want to consider implementing the Cardholder Authentication programs on the gateway that you select. For instance, Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode allow you to become protected against 60% of the most common CB reason codes mostly centering around the "I didn't order that!"-types.

If I may ask, what is your average sales amount for these sculptures and what do you anticipate most order totals coming out to?

You also might want to get you terms of service well written: Sell Your Chargebacks Now (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=369689). if these are somewhat high ticket items, you clients might experience buyer's remorse as well (even though they cannot tell their issuing bank that).

Also - consider a shopping cart that might show different sides of each itme. That way the consumer can get a good idea of what the sculpture looks like.

If the sculptures are small enough, consider Photo Studio In A Box (http://americanrecorder.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=157&osCsid=49de889478b9bb18f3a41af85706fec1) as well to help you take a better image of your products.

And also consider charging people a deposit and then the remainder of the transaction if you have to complete the item, especially if it is going to take you more than three weeks. This way, if you charge the complete amount, and the person gets his CC statement. he/she might request a chargeback because he does not have the item. Some processors (as well Visa / MasterCard) frown on charging a person's credit card without having shipped the item

Originally posted by cdgcommerce
If I may ask, what is your average sales amount for these sculptures and what do you anticipate most order totals coming out to?

I can`t know what the Web sales will be,but there are some "artes" that are more than 5 000$ worth.That`s why I want to make my transefrs that protected.And this is also the reason why i want to know more about e-commerce.Cause there may be some aspects that are not usual for me...And it`s a bit "shaky" to loose big summs of money as the result of my gloomy knowlege of e-commerce..:confused:

I`ve recently heard of those 3-rd party processors, could you please tell me what are they about and what are other types of them...

With that type of amount / volume, I would not really even consider most 3PP. 3PP are basically a company that allows you to use their merchant account to accept credit cards. Some of the payout on a monthly basis, some every couple of weeks, and some, you need to contact them to get your money.

With a merchant account, you usually get your money 24-48 hours after the transaction is complete