RE: shopping cart and credit card acceptance codes

Hi Diane,

Hmm, maybe on the Techniques list you might be able to find on topic help. As a
introductory help...

I was totally confused as well when I started :) Basically, online shopping
carts go beyond HTML, you won't be able to go any farther than item pages and a
"mailto" fill out form using HTML only. Without a shopping cart script of some
sort, the customer would have to fill in the totals, item numbers and junk like
that all on their own :)

I'm not sure how far you have gotten, but you probably need a shopping cart
script that will handle the back-end of the procedure. Unless you know Perl or
some other coding language, you will need an existing script to customize and
insert into your HTML item pages.

What this means is, the script instructions will tell you how to "tag" your html
pages so the items, prices, and shipping charges get placed on the shopping cart
page. The script tallies the charges according to the shipping options and total
items purchased, then on checkout asks for the card and address, etc. The script
will then email you the orders, which you fill. Scripts do it different ways,
but this is usually how it goes.

Unless your site is selling downloadable items, you really don't need to charge
the credit card "real time", like at the exact time the customer places the
order on the web. Most usually, the credit card is given a quick verification,
the card number is passed to the store owner, and they use their "swiper" or
equipment to key in the numbers. if you are selling downloadable merchandise,
e-mail me offlist for links of an exhaustive bout of research I have done on
that one :)

I learned alot by checking out these sites for starters:
http://rvdesigns.com/ecomscope/main.html
http://www.onlineorders.net/
http://ecommerce.internet.com/
http://www.wdvl.com/Internet/Commerce/
http://www.zdnet.com/enterprise/e-business/

There are lots of existing scripts out there to tackle your online store needs.
Sometimes, the hoster that you have the site on has one already built in, so try
there first.

Also, if you can't run CGI scripts, there are remotely hosted solutions, one off
the top of my head that I have used in the past is http://www.americart.com .

There are free carts and carts that cost thousands. Determine a budget and needs
list, then go look at the solutions the above sites link to. You will find it is
quite the accomplishment after getting it all done.

Goodluck!!!

Gina

|-----Original Message-----
|From: owner-hwg-business(at)hwg.org [mailto:owner-hwg-business(at)hwg.org]On
|Behalf Of diane
|Sent: Monday, September 04, 2000 6:34 PM
|To: hwg-business(at)hwg.org
|Subject: shopping cart and credit card acceptance codes
|
|
| I am not sure if I am posting to the right place
|but here goes anyway.
|Being a new site developer, I am absolutely
|out of my depth.  I need to learn how to build
|the shopping cart thru the credit card acceptance
|page.  Is there existing code out there that can
|be used?
|I have the merchant account and all the
|other banking stuff but cannot figure out
|to build the pages.  Is this a question
|for guild?  I do not want to be impolite.
|Thank you
|Any help would be heaven sent!
|diane(at)tein.net
|

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