Ecommerce is where consumers can purchase goods and services over the web using their credit card. The basic process of how this works is shown below.

Overview Of How Ecommerce Works

	A consumer visits your website and uses your online store to make a purchase. The transaction is conducted over a secure connection (SSL) to your web hosting server.
	Payment Processing Gateway handles the secure, real time encrypted credit card information and co-ordinates the transaction
	Merchant account processes the movement of funds
	Funds are debited from the consumers credit card account
	Funds are deposited into your designated bank account

What You Need To Handle Ecommerce

There are different levels of ecommerce integration. You can make it very simple by letting a 3rd party such as Paypal handle all your ecommerce processing, or you can integrate everything into your own website.

To integrate everything into your site, you need a website setup to display your products

• You can use a shopping cart type system
• You can create your own system with a database and custom designed website

If your site is going to accept credit cards then you need to have SSL (Secure Socket Layer) capability. This encrypts any information sent between the consumers PC and the webserver. When a SSL connection is in place you see the lock icon on the browser on the bottom right hand side.

• You can use the hosts shared SSL area - this way you do not need your own certificate
• You can buy your own SSL certificate (around $100 a year), you will need a hosting account with a Unique IP. This looks far more professional than using a system like PayPal.

If you intend to do everything from your site and not use a 3rd party like paypal, then you will also need a merchant account and an account with a processor. For tips on how to choose a merchant account read this FindMyHosting article Choosing An Internet Merchant Account