We offer many affordable e-commerce solutions for small businesses. Here are the options and a little about e-commerce.
E-commerce involves the selling of products or services through an online gateway (website).
To be e-commerce ready you need...
- A Secure Website
Any exchange of sensitive data, such as credit cards and account information between a consumer and your company, should be encrypted via an SSL certificate or similar website security system. Here are the options for securing your website:
OPTION 1 | Purchase a SSL certificate from $149.00 a year plus $50.00 setup fees.
OPTION 2 | Use our shared Verisign 128-bit SSL (Windows platform only). An included feature with our Commerce or Developer hosting packages or $5.00 a month added to your Basic hosting plan.
OPTION 3 | If you only need to process credit cards use our Cart32 shopping cart software that includes secure encryption. An included option with our Commerce or Developer hosting packages or $5.00 a month added to your Basic hosting plan.
- An Online Credit Card Processor/Authorization
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View a list >
Credit Card Processors are a service paid to companies who verify the credit card then sends the charge to your merchant account. Your Merchant Account transfers the money from the credit card company to your business bank account. - A Merchant Account |
More info >
A merchant account is a commercial bank account established by contractual agreement between your business and a chosen bank. It transfers money from the credit card company to your business bank account for a per transaction percent (around 2% or purchase). Cost varies depending on volume of transactions and the bank.
The Bottom Line...
Minimum Monthly Fees to begin accepting credit cards over a website.
Monthly Hosting (Intergrow)
$34.00
Credit Card Processors (Company of Your Choice - a list)
$15.00
Merchant Account (Company of Your Choice - more info)
$15.00
Total Minimum Monthly Fees
$64.00
Let us design your e-commerce website!
We can offer Cart32 or custom PHP script shopping carts and reasonable e-commerce ready hosting plans from $34.00/month and e-commerce ready site
design fees under $500.00.
Questions
1 What is E-commerce?2 What is a Shopping Cart?
3 What shopping cart does Intergrow provide?
4 What are the payment gateways/real-time credit authorization's supported?
5 Is Cart32 easy to use and can I customize it?
6 What will help me create a successful e-commerce business?
7 What is a merchant account?
8 What is an Secure Socket Layer SSL Certificate?
9 Why do I need a SSL Certificate?
10 How do I obtain a SSL certificate?
Answers
1. What is E-commerce?The buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the internet. Such a practice has exploded in the past year alone, as security issues have improved, and more and more consumers are buying and goods and services online also called e-commerce. Typically there are three types of e-commerce transactions: business to business (Cisco), business to consumer (ie etailers), and consumer to consumer (eBay).also called e-commerce.
The consumer moves through the internet to the merchant's website. From there, he decides that he wants to purchase something, so he is moved to the online transaction server, where all of the information he gives is encrypted. Once he has placed his order, the information moves through a private gateway to a Processing Network, where the issuing and acquiring banks complete or deny the transaction. This generally takes place in no more than 5-7 seconds. There are many different payment systems available to accommodate the varied processing needs of merchants, from those who have a few orders a day to those who process thousands of transactions daily. With the addition of Secure Socket Layer technology, e-commerce is also a very safe way to complete transactions.
2. What is a Shopping Cart?
Shopping cart software is an Internet software that can be used to allow people to purchase your items, keep track of your accounts, and tie together all of the aspects of your eCommerce site into one cohesive whole. While there are many other types of software that you can use in it's place, such as catalog software or a flat order form, shopping cart software is the most popular and the most widely known.
Many Online Transaction Providers will have shopping cart software that comes with their service, but it can often be very expensive, so be warned.
If you cannot afford to spend at least a couple of hundred dollars on this software, you should be looking for a package that offers it as a rental included in the monthly service charge, or one that offers a simple flat order form.
3. What Shopping Cart does Intergrow provide?
Cart32 is the shopping cart we offer to all our clients who wish to have E-Commerce Facilities.
We also offer custom designed PHP scripted shopping carts.
4. What are the payment gateways/real-time credit authorization's supported?
Cart32 supports the gateways listed below:
Preferred Processors |
Other Processors |
5. Is Cart32 easy to use and can I customize it?
Cart32 and Cart32+ is easy to use and configure. Cart32 can also be fully customized or we can customize it for you.
6. What will help me create a successful e-commerce business?
What makes one e-commerce site take off while another languishes is hard to say. The best all share some common traits worth considering when building your site.
Create easy-to-Navigate Pages
Generally, good sites have a minimum of graphics and clutter, display navigational tools along the top or down the side, and offer a table of contents, maps, and indexes. Make merchandise easy to find. Shoppers can't buy what they can't locate. Storefronts that hide merchandise behind a crowded home page or several layers of information will frustrate them. Build into your site the search capabilities that will let users sort by subject, item, or some other category.Offer Personalized Service
Just as in the physical world, sites that deliver superior service get the buzz. The best ones provide purchase confirmation via email, giving you a handy detailed record. Clearly, e-commerce is here to stay. International Data Corporation has projected that 46 million Americans will buy $16 billion worth of goods annually by next year, and $54 billion by 2002. Forrester Research predicts e-commerce sales of almost $7 billion by 2000. Looking further ahead, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter estimates sales of anywhere between $21 billion to $115 billion annually by 2005.7. What is a merchant account?
A merchant account is a commercial bank account established by contractual agreement between your business and a chosen bank. You need to have one in order to accept credit card payments online or through manual processing by terminal. You can then conduct online transactions via a payment gateway. The majority of banks, especially large institutions, offer Merchant Services.
Getting an Internet Merchant Bank Account
In order to be able to accept credit cards over the internet, you must apply to your bank for an Internet Merchant Bank Account. This can be relatively easy or somewhat difficult, depending on which country you live in and what bank you are with. U.S.A.: In the US, this is a fairly simple procedure. Many banks offer Internet Merchant Accounts, and most Online Transaction Providers will support them. See your bank for details. International: Since the vast majority of Online Transaction Providers are located in the US and are restricted in their ability to interact with banks outside their own country, international merchants have very little choice. An international merchant has to find a way to get a US merchant account, embark on the equally difficult task of finding a local Online Transaction Provider, or utilize one of the few companies that services the international market. Also, many banks outside the US have very restrictive policies regarding internet accounts. Luckily, the situation is improving, and most Online Transaction Providers will help you with this if you get in touch with them. In the ratings section, we have included information on which providers give international service.
Here are some additional issues to keep in mind when you apply for a Merchant Bank Account:
- A US merchant account can take up to a month to come through. If you already have a merchant bank account, you will probably also need to upgrade it to an Internet account.
- Ensure that your bank accepts Internet merchant accounts and has credit card processors that can connect to FDC, Paymentech or CyberCash.
- Your account must be able to handle Card Not Present transactions.
8. What is a SSL Web Server Certificate?
Installing a SSL Web Server Certificate means any information sent to your web server is encrypted or scrambled
(via 'https://' instead of 'http://'), making it impossible to intercept or steal. It also displays the identity of the website owner, and the
name of the independent authority who verified that identity, such as Thawte, Verisign, Global Trust, etc. Most Web Server Certificate connect at 128 bit, 56 bit or 40 bit depending on the client's browser capability.
Shared SSL - the affordable alternative
You may share our Thawte 128-bit SSL certificate (Windows Platform ONLY) for $5.00 a month or free with our Commerce or Developer hosting packages.
A SSL Web Server Certificate enables your customers to view the following information:
- The domain for which the certificate was issued. This allows them to check that the SSL Web Server Certificate was issued for your domain (URL).
- The owner of the certificate. This acts as further reassurance, since customers are able to see whom they are doing business with.
- The physical location of the owner. Once again this reassures customers that they are dealing with an actual entity.
- The validity dates of the certificate. This is extremely important, since it shows users that your SSL Web Server Certificate is current.
9. Why do I need a SSL Web Server Certificate?
Many online transactions fail at the last minute when consumers consider the potential risks of entering their credit card and other personal information, or when it is not clear whether it is safe to download code from your site.
Utilizing a SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) 'handshake', based on the leading security protocol on the Internet, you and your customers can rest assured that all online communications are secure while the information is being transmitted.
Securing the transmission of information to your business holds obvious benefits, as does signifying that you are a trustworthy online organization.
If you want to use web pages that are capable of passing information to and from your visitors securely, then you
need a secure SSL certificate. This enables you to utilize the security of up to 128-bit encryption designed to prevent anyone from intercepting the information passed to and from your website when accessed using https.
With a secure certificate installed on your domain, the web server encrypts/scrambles the information sent to your
users, and they are the only ones with the key capable of decrypting/unscrambling and viewing the information. This capability is particularly useful for e-commerce or other sites that may handle private or personal data.
10. How do I obtain a SSL certificate?
Do You Need One?
If you need to process credit cards securely, but do not have to 'secure' information exchanges on other areas of your website, then you may use our Cart32 shopping cart software for your website's order interface. The software is run over Verisign 128-bit SSL so the secure encryption is taken care of for you. Cart32 cost $5.00 a month as an add on to your Basic hosting plan or included with our Commerce or Developer hosting packages.
Shared SSL - the affordable alternative
If you need secure areas of your website beyond the credit card processor area you may share our Thawte 128-bit SSL certificate (Windows Platform ONLY) for $5.00 a month or free with our Commerce or Developer hosting packages.
Purchase Your Own
NEW!! As part of our commitment to offering our clients the best value services, we are pleased to announce that clients can now order industry standard Verisign or Thawte SSL certificates at discount to standard Prices. Setup charges amount to $50.00 which covers preparation of documents, sub mission of documents to Thawte or Verisign and installation of the SSL certificate on our servers. Prices from Verisign run from $319.00 a year and Thawte from $149.00 a year. Order by including the following information in an email addressed to sales@intergrow.com. Please include your domain name in the request. We will verify your request with pricing information.
Is this a Thawte or Verisign certificate?
Common name for the certificate :
Company name :
Full address [no abbreviations]
Contact person :
Position in the company :
Tel :
Fax :
Email :
