Tools for E-Trade

Depending upon the purpose with which one is opening a website he may needs various tools for conducting online business venture. Here, is a quick check list for the same:

a. Website needs to be designed in house or not?

In case website needs to be designed in house one needs to check for following things:

1. 
   You need to get experience / training in Web designing. You may opt to use a template /wizard-based tools or hire a designer for the same.
   
2. A good computer having plenty of RAM and hard drive space (6 GB minimum)
   
3. Need to have a web designing software which can be either WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) or a text editor (use this in case you know html)
   
4. A scanner or digital camera for collecting photos of product or service.
   
5. Image editing software for editing images and illustration software for creating graphics
   
6. Any FTP software like CuteFTP for r uploading files to the Web site
   

b. Website needs to sell products online? In case website is to be used for selling products it needs to be equipped with the following:

1. A merchant account for accepting payments. There are some other options available for accepting payments like traditional methods.
   
2. Shopping cart software : Website should be able to collect shoppers order and update the same in the data base.
   
3. Secure servers: Since online money transaction needs to be done. Website may accept credit card payment or other personal payment information online. In such case secure serve needs to be deployed and maintained.
   
4. Software for tracking inventory and shipping of orders.
   
5. How many products or services need to be listed on the Web site?
   

In case there are many products to be listed on the website. Following points needs to be taken care: a. A database having product names, descriptions, pricing, and photos and other details.b. A system for booking orders.c. A system for inventory management ,tracking shipping orders etc..d. Easy and reliable way of updating and maintaining the database on the website.e. Does the product or service have some requirements like sound, video or animations?In case any of these things are required. One needs to take care of following points.a. An equipment to capture/edit video and/or audio. b. Software (and training) to create good animations c. A broad-band Internet connection (helpful, but not absolutely necessary)How the Pay flow Gateway works? Source:www.Paypal.com1. Customer inputs credit card information on the Online Store. 2. The Payment Gateway encrypts data and securely sends it to the Internet Merchant Account. 3. The transaction is reviewed for authorization. 4. The result is encrypted and sent back through the payment gateway. 5. You get the results and decide whether or not to fulfill the order. Payment processing software
It is usually third party organization, which provides payment processing software, for e.g. monetra, verifone, etc. It is used for getting card transactions authorized and further processed. E –business usually pays monthly fees for processing services. Also it’s extremely vital, for any online transactions e-business must provide adequate security for the card information being transmitted.