Here's The News from Hen's Teeth Network

Free Newsletter published by Hen’s Teeth Network (www.hens-teeth.net)

August 2003

Contents:

• Feature news item: Why E-Commerce?
• Product news: E-Commerce Easy Start Kit
• Did you know about: SSL Certificates

Feature: Why E-Commerce?

Why do businesses create on-line stores? Because e-commerce works. A well-designed on-line store is a very appealing and cost-effective way to present products to the public and to make it easy for the customer to buy.

• Convenient
  • The site is ALWAYS available
  • Information is ALWAYS up-to-date
  • Orders can ALWAYS be taken
• Cost-effective
  • Expensive printed catalogs aren't necessary
  • Printed advertising pieces are not overstocked and wasted
  • Postage costs for mailing advertisements go down

An e-commerce store needs a few main pieces. First, the business will need a web site where the on-line store can run. For the store itself, there are four pieces:

• Shopping cart software
  This is the software that holds the catalog of items, lets the customer search for items, select them, and check out (purchase). The software also takes care of sending feedback to the customer on what they ordered and when it will ship. It notifies the store of the order, and, generally, it sends the purchase information to the merchant account. Shopping cart software is a complex operation. There are many packages available in a wide range of prices. All will require effort to customize for the business and to load with the text and graphics that form the on-line catalog.
• Merchant account
  This is the account the business has with a bank that allows the business to take credit cards for customer purchases. Check with your bank to see if your merchant account supports on-line sales.
• Credit card gateway
  The gateway takes the credit card information from the shopping cart software and transmits it to the merchant account.
• SSL certificate
  The SSL certificate enables encryption of sensitive data (personal information and credit card numbers) involved in e-commerce. An SSL certificate can also give a measure of validation to the identity of the on-line business. (See Did You Know feature below)

Product News: E-Commerce Easy Start Kit

Recognizing that starting an e-commerce store can be expensive and intimidating, HTN offers the E-Commerce Easy Start Kit for $399. This package delivers a full e-commerce store complete with an on-line catalog with about a dozen of your products – ready to take orders.

With your new e-commerce store, you will be able to accept orders on-line through your web site. You can receive these orders in email, on a special web site, or faxed to you by the on-line shopping cart software. If you want to accept credit cards, you may need a merchant account and, optionally, a credit card gateway. You will also need an SSL certificate for encryption.

You can start your E-commerce site with a few of the more popular products or those best suited for purchase on-line. This gets your e-commerce store up and running quickly while keeping costs down. Much of the expense of setting up an e-commerce site is in the creation of the on-line catalog. You can start small and add other products to the catalog at any point.

HTN offers several E-commerce solutions. HTN has the experience to help you select the e-commerce products that meet your needs. We will put the puzzle together so that you get the store you want at a reasonable and manageable cost.

See http://www.hens-teeth.net/html/products/PDG/easy_start.htm for details of the E-Commerce Easy Start Kit.

Did You Know About: SSL Certificates

An SSL certificate is what makes a secure page secure. Because e-commerce sites collect personal information and (often) credit card numbers, they will generally use encryption provided by SSL certificates to protect the integrity of this information. Encryption means that the information on the page is “scrambled” so that your data is secure and your privacy protected.

There are three types of SSL certificates available. The certificate issuers perform various levels of checking on the business applying for an SSL certificate. You can purchase an SSL certifcate at any of the three levels:

• a basic level that provides encryption only (these are available for around $40/year)
• an intermediate level that provides encryption plus an automated business check of the company buying the certificate (available for under $200/year)
• the highest level that provides encryption plus a manual check of the company buying the certificate (available for over $300/year).

The automated business checks verify that the company that bought the certifcate is a valid company that actually exists. The manual business checks verify that a human being has done some background checks on the business. In both cases, the certificate issuer is vouching for the certificate holder.

As a consumer, when you see the padlock in the bottom right corner of your browser window, you know the page you are viewing is secure and encrypted. You can find out some more information by double clicking on that padlock and (depending on your browser) selecting “Details” on the “General” tab. What you will find out is the name of the company whose page this is, the name of the company that issued the certificate, and the expiration date for the certificate. This gives you some indication that the company whose page you are on is a valid company, and that another company (the certificate issuer) has done some level of verification of the web page company's business.

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Thank you.

Candy Zemon, editor