Ritty in the City©
print media, internet development, marketing studio

Lets start with SHOPPING CARTS - Basically, a shopping cart allows your visitor the ability to
browse through your product line and choose items that they would like to purchase. Just like a real
store, a cart is just a convenience you provide your visitor so they can really load up on the goods!
When the visitors decide they are ready to check
out, you collect their information, shipping options, payment options, etc. and you've just made a sale. All this information gets stored in a database, so
your return visitors can login and the system will remember them the next time they want to make a purchase. Pretty cool right?

There are a lot more options associated with a shopping cart, but those are addressed based on your individual needs. As with a CMS solution, e-commerce solutions give you complete control over your shopping cart. You can create new products, edit content, pictures, place items on
sale - all from an easy-to-use environment using your internet browser software.

There are a few things to consider though when planning for a shopping cart.

How are you going to ship your merchandise and charge for shipping?

There are a number of shipping companies that
you can use to ship your merchandise. In most cases, it is the same companies you are already using, except you will need to create special accounts with them in order display real time estimates on shipping rates. In these cases you will want to know and enter the weight of your items.

You can also charge a set per-item shipping
charge, in which case the program will automatically add up the total amount of items.

How are you going to accept payments?

There are a variety of payment gateways that would allow you to process credit cards or checks online.

• There are a number of Merchant accounts and
third party processors online that provide that service. Your bank is probably one of them. Authorize.net and VeriSign being Merchant Account providers and
Pay Pal being a third party processor. These are some suggestions you might want to consider. To find out more about these companies, please click
on their links.

• You can also process credit cards the old
fashioned way. The information gets sent
to you via email and you process it locally on your existing terminal.