Steven wrote:
>
> Yesterday somebody on another list I'm on asked for the basic
>skinny on "e-commerce". <snip> I've been particularly
>seeing a lot of e-commerce "products" and "applications" lately; are
>these simply shopping cart systems? Credit card processing systems?
>
> What should the "best" e-commerce system contain? What should
>it cost?
They go all over the place. The best answer is, "all of the above--or SOME
of the above." The simplest solution is a basic form that posts to secure
server so that the merchant can retrieve orders from a password protected
page, then process orders and credit cards by manually.
For small businesses with only a few products to sell, "canned" ecommerce
solutions like MerchantPlanet, Viaweb and Americart are great. They provide
an prefab database backend, credit card verification, email order
confirmation, etc.
Businesses with larger product lines or more complex needs, may opt for a
custom-built e-commerce solution. These usually require some sort of
database back-end, such as one I'm having built for a record label catalog
in Filemaker Pro. ColdFusion is another good approach. Count on spending a
minimum of $2000-3000 for a custom database e-commerce solution.
Suz
Suzanne Stephens, Dave Stephens Design; Ashland, Oregon
541-552-1190, 541-552-1192 http://www.KickassDesign.com/
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