'Net Commerce is one of the fastest growing segments of the digital economy today, but it's also one of the most misunderstood.

At a fundamental level, 'Net Commerce is the process of buying and selling goods or services using the Internet as an order-taking and message-delivery backbone. Such solutions can utilize complicated shopping cart software and database integration, or they can be as simple as setting up a simple order form.

Webmaster, Inc. will help you separate fact from fiction and define a strategy that matches your goals and your budget.

With the marketplace evolving so rapidly, it can be difficult to sift through the hype and marketing mumbo-jumbo to find the answers to your questions. Over the years Webmaster, Inc. has worked with a wide variety of 'Net Commerce solutions, some custom, some out of the box, and we know what direct marketing companies need. Not only do we bring technology expertise and awareness to the table, our experience with mail order operations extends well beyond the Internet environment and includes an integrated understanding of how such companies do business on a day-to-day basis.

When thinking about taking your business online, you need to consider the following:

Shopping Cart Software: You may want to allow people to shop your website. Shopping cart software allows people to "carry" products around with them as they browse a website. This software can range from incredibly cheap to indescribably expensive, depending upon the features you need and how flexible you want it to be.

Database Integration: In most shopping cart implementations these days, the product information is stored in a database. The cart software interacts with the database, outputting the product data into templates as that data is requested. This allows for greater flexibility and efficiency and is especially useful when dealing with product lines of 25 or more. Database integration is not limited to shopping systems and has a wide variety of uses on the Internet today, including content management, advertising, and more.

Legacy Systems: Most companies use some form of invoicing and mail list management software to keep track of orders and customers. You need to decide early on just how much interaction will be required between your website and your existing order-taking systems. Be aware that you may not be able to easily extract your product line from your existing software/database, or it may be difficult to import orders into that system. Legacy system integration can be quite costly, so plenty of planning is needed up front.

Security: One of the biggest concerns voiced by Internet users in relation to 'Net Commerce is security. Secure server transactions (using SSL) permit sensitive information to be encrypted as it is relayed from the end-user to the Web server. Most website visitors will avoid shopping online if their credit card information is perceived to be at risk. It's critical that you have secure shopping capabilities when building a 'Net Commerce site. For more information, visit http://www.verisign.net/ or http://www.thawte.com/

Policies: 'Net Commerce websites must be explicit about their privacy policies, shipping fees, return procedures, etc. This information should be prominently displayed and easily accessed. Your objective is to gain your customers' confidence, so provide as much information up front as possible.

Our initial consultation phase will help you make decisions regarding the above and more. Once there's a road map outlining what it is that you're trying to accomplish, we'll begin to define the technologies required to do the job. Contact us for more information!