[thelist] eCommerce

[Monique Angelich]

I can tell you what happens with Ecommerce from the programming side, and a guesstimate on how my clients handle the rest. 

Once the selection process is finished at any ecommerce store, meaning their shopping basket contains everything they wish to purchase, the checkout button will take them to a page that first calculates the total cost of each item. If the person resides in the same state as the company they are purchasing from, sales tax is calculated at that state's current tax level, and added to the total purchase price.

After sales tax is calculated, and a new subtotal is calculated, the program determines shipping rates to charge to the customer. These are either flat-rates based on dollar amount (for example, charge $5 for shipping if the subtotal is under $40, charge 10$ for shipping if the subtotal is $41 to $100, etc), percentage based (charging 10% of the subtotal as the shipping charge), or weight based (this is how UPS calculates the shipping charges, usually). 

Once all these numbers have been calculated and added together, the client is notified of the total purchase price. They have the option of paying by credit card, or perhaps they can print their order and send in a check. There are many possible ways to collect payment. (some ecommerce stores are for vendors only, so a bill of sale is sent and the items paid for after they are received).

Most stores I have created collect the credit card information and then send it to a processing service using a secured post (SSL, HTTPS, hopefully you know what that means), also sending an email notification with order details and the client's name and contact information. Rarely, credit card information is also sent using encrypted email.  

Once the client clicks the "pay for it" button, the processing service takes the information the client has entered, at times collecting more information from the client, and then processes the credit card. 

Once the credit card has been successfully charged, a receipt is sent to the client and to the ecommerce store owner, letting them know the purchase has been paid for. 

With the order details received via email and the credit card payment collected on their behalf by whichever processing service, the company is ready to send the shipment to their customer. If they have it on hand, they will usually send it within 24 hours (to catch the next scheduled pick up by their shipping company) or if the item is not in stock, they order it and send it upon its arrival at THEIR office.

Most Ecommerce stores will tell you an expected delivery date for any item you order, because it can be anywhere from 4 days to three weeks. *smile*

Once a package arrives, the customer needs to verify their order, contact the company if anything is incorrect or damaged, and from then the transaction is typical of any purchase... pretty much.

If that isn't what you need to know, being more specific will help us help you.

--- Monique