Simply put e-commerce means doing business over the internet on a website or webpage.  By selling a good or service and processing that transaction on a credit card over the internet you are now in an e-commerce website.

E-commerce websites usually have what we call a shopping cart.  A shopping cart is web site scripted code, usually in PHP or ASP, that allow website users to add and subtract items in a temporary holding area while the user browses the website.  When the user is ready to purchase their items they can revisit the websites shopping cart which has been holding the users items, and the user can type in their credit card and shipping information into the shopping cart input boxes and process their order.  When a user clicks on the button to process their order, a number of very important things must happen in order to be successful in this instance, and for the e-commerce website owner, a number of thing must happen to ensure a safe transaction.

First and foremost, the transaction needs to be secured by using an SSL certificate.  SSL means Secure Socket Layer, a protocol used to encrypt the information between two servers.  This makes it impossible for people elsewhere in the world, who are connected to the internet, to read and or save the information you may be sending or receiving.  With a proper SSL certificate the protocol in the URL bar will change from http:// to https:// .  The difference between the “s” in this instance is everything only if the certificate has been issued and is being used to back this “s”.  In your internet browser, there should be a little lock icon when the “s” appears in the URL protocol which you can usually click on to see the details.  It’s a good idea to make sure that a certificate actually pops open an that you verify who it was issued by.

The Web Squad handles this important SSL certificate for our customers.  We make sure that our clients and their customers are all protected so that hackers and fishers don’t get the vital information that is being transmitted to and from secure servers.