Shopping Cart System

Hello everybody,

Can somebody explain me the basics of a shopping cart system?
I've understood it like this:

1. Customer browses Online Shop product catalog
2. Customer adds items to the shopping cart
3. Customer confirms the purchase
<!-- The paying part -->
4. Transaction goes to payment processing / transaction clearing company
         (Now how exactly does this part work? Will the transfer of user data be
encrypted? How? Examples of payment processing/transaction companys? )
5. Company verifies the amount and takes if from the customer's account
6. Company pays Online Shop(and takes off their fee)
<!-- Filling out the order -->
7. Warehouse gathers the products in the order for shipping
8. Courier company ships the goods off to the customer, and the purchase is
complete

Are there any steps I've missed? When exactly does the user enter a secure area?

Any advices/tutorials associated with this subject are welcome.

PS! I'd be doing this with PHP/MySQL. PHP supports Cybercash... can anybody tell
me something about Cybercash? Where would I find more information about
Cybercash? Thanks!

Best wishes,
Lauri V�in

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