A - Z of eCommerce

[Biotronik]

Electronic Commerce
eCommerce is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Internet, with sales growth recoded by online merchants well ahead of growth recorded by the traditional high street shops. Yes, many small businesses are not taking maximum advantage of eCommerce. Some of the reasons could be lack of the know how, that is why we compiled a list of ecommerce terminologies which we hope to expand from time to time, in the home that complete beginners trying to put their first website online as well as established online traders who want to expand their knowledge.

This post was facilitated by Boss Cart. Boss Cart offer a range of free and premium eCommerce shopping cart.A to Z of eCommerce


eCommerce A - Z

A

Affiliate program - Program set up by an e-commerce web site, where owners of third party websites can receive commissions for promoting and selling their goods and services

B

B2B, B2C - Business-to-Business (B2B) refers to web sites or electronic transactions between two businesses. Examples include manufacturers and suppliers that market their products and services to other corporations. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) are web sites where online retailers and businesses with electronic storefronts sell products and services directly to consumers

Batch Settlement - Successful transactions submitted though a payment gateway are collected in batches and processed at regular intervals, usually daily. Each batch is settled when the payment processor has completed the transfer of money from the purchasers' credit cards to the merchant's account

C

Certificate Authority - A third party that issues SSL certificates to web site owners for a fee. They verify the identity of the business owner. Two examples are Verisign and Thwate

Charge back - The reversal of a credit card transaction; either the purchase is challenged in a credit card dispute or a merchant issues a refund. The purchaser receives a credit on his or her card, and the amount is charged to the merchant's account or a special charge back account

E

E-CRM - Electronic Customer Relations Management, a software-based system for managing all relationships with online buyers, including marketing and customer service

E-business (Electronic business) - Using technology and the Internet to conduct business online. E-business includes not just e-commerce transactions, but also customer service, marketing, business partnerships, information delivery, and intranet management

E-commerce (Electronic commerce) - Business transactions conducted by electronic means, usually through a web site. In an e-commerce transaction, payments are automatically processed for products and services purchased over the Internet

Electronic Wallet - A consumer device that can manage cash, sometimes in an electronic account. They store billing information so transactions can be completed quickly and with minimal user input

Encryption - Scrambles data into a code that is unreadable by unauthorized users. Encryption is the method used by secure servers to protect sensitive data such as credit card numbers

F

Fulfillment - The process of delivering goods and services after an order is placed. Products may be shipped to a physical location, or in the case of electronic fulfillment, could be software or another file made available to the purchaser for downloading

M

Merchant account - Special bank account that is approved for credit card transactions. Payment gateways have an interface to a merchant account to allow payments to be processed and deposited online

Micropayment - Electronic payments of a few pennies or less. Web site visitors are typically charged a very small amount to access web pages or files, and all the transactions are collected and submitted for processing at once, or deducted from an electronic cash account. In practice, the use of micropayment systems is not yet widespread

O

Online/offline payment processing - Online payment processing is handled automatically by software that checks and accepts or declines payments made through a web site. In offline payment processing, a person, such as the web site owner, manually enters credit card transactions into a payment system

Order form - An HTML web page that collects information about an online purchase, including the product or service sold and the purchaser's billing and shipping information

P

Payment Processor - A third party that provides a system that includes or interfaces with a shopping cart as part of a complete e-commerce payment solution, including a payment gateway

Payment gateway (Examples include Paypal, WorldPay, SecPay, Protex) - An online system that collects billing transactions from a website, processes the payments, and submits them for deposit to a merchant account

S

Secure Server /SSL Certificate - A secure server is a web server specially configured to encrypt sensitive data like credit card numbers when they are sent over the Internet. Web pages on a secure server begin with the prefix https:, and a lock icon is shown in the user's browser. An SSL certificate, which is issued by a third party and verifies the identity of the web host, must be installed on the server in order to enable safe and secure payment processing

Shopping cart - Web pages that use browser cookies or sessions to store items that users wish to purchase. Shopping carts are linked to an online catalog, where products are selected, and to an order form, where the purchase is completed

T

Transaction fee - The payment processor's charge for settling each successful electronic transaction. The transaction fee is usually a small fixed cost plus a percentage of the total transaction amount

[temi]

Thanks for that Mihai

[amit]

Thanks great elaboration of the ecommerce a-z. Thanks for sharing it.

[.SR]

Great Post, lots of known and unknown terms there. Thanks for sharing.

.SR

[Gab]

Hay,

Thanks, really very informative