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What is E-commerce Hosting?E-commerce stands for electronic commerce; it refers to Internet sales of services and products. The main idea of e-commerce is that the whole process takes place online: from the selection of the product(s) to the acceptance of payment. Why should I choose E-commerce Hosting?If you plan to sell online services or products, then what you need is an E-commerce host. Of course you may try to accept check for a product order. However, when you think about how many times you have sent a check to make an order online from a web site (since it is more than likely that that number is zero) the logical choice is to opt for a e-commerce host. Is accepting credit cards neccessary?The answer to this is simple: Yes. Think about how many items you buy each week which you really do not need. Then figure out how many of them bought by a credit card. It is a well-known fact that accepting credit cards online increases purchase rates up to 90% and that is the main reason why all retail stores accept credit cards. Since cash is not an option in the online world, and people do not use checks online, the only way to have business online is accepting credit cards. Do I need a shopping cart software and what is it?Shopping cart software runs on the web server and keeps track of the items and services purchased by the customers. If you only have 1 or 2 items to sell, it is possible to run an ecommerce business without using shopping cart software. However, if you have more than that, you must use a shopping cart software to be able to keep track of all purchases. The best aspect of using shopping carts is that most hosting providers will allow you to test the shopping cart software even before you open an account. Make sure to test out as many as possible to make the best choice. How can I accept credit cards?This can be done in two ways. You can either sign up for a service like PayPal or get a merchant account which is very similar to a bank account but is only used to accept payments from online checks and credit cards. What is the meaning of virtual Terminal?In the real world, the merchant has access to the customer's credit card and can process it though a "terminal". In the online world, this can be done with the help of a virtual terminal. Virtual terminals check the information given by the customer and then let the sale go through if it matches the record of the credit card company. Is it a good way to accept credit cards through PayPal?Accepting PayPal payments is a good idea but you should not restrict your ecommerce business to one type of payment. Providing the customer with different payment options will increase your sales. What does real-time credit card processing mean?It's called real-time credit card processing if the user get notified instantly whether his or her credit card accepted or not . Most merchant accounts have this option. An alternative option is manual credit card processing. Manual processing of a credit card adds another step which increases the chances of making mistakes. Should I also accept checks online?If you really want to increase the number of options a person can pay, then yes, you should think about this since the main aim is to increase your sales. Most merchant accounts do online check verification so don't forget to ask your provider. Is SSL required?Yes you do because it secures all the data between the web server and the web browser.. This is very important since both the credit card information and personal information could fall into the wrong hands. Glossary of terms:SSLSecure Socket Layer (SSL) is a web security protocol. It is used to protect the data between the web server and the web browser. Merchant AccountMerchant accounts help businesses to accept payments online by credit card. Shopping CartShopping cart software allows the web site owners to easily manage their stores. It also allows visitors of the site to easily add items to their shopping lists and checkout all items at once. Virtual TerminalA web-based interface which help to process credit cards online. Check VerificationAbility to accept online checks from a customer without actually having to receive the check first.
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