E-Commerce, I-Commerce, Online Catalogs, Shopping Carts etc…
Doing business over the Internet.
Leveraging the Internet to enhance an existing business.

This is the trend, it’s now, it’s hip and every business from the smallest to the largest want’s in on the action.

Our goal is to make it as easy and affordable as possible for the potential Internet merchant to create an Internet presence for the purpose of building or enhancing a new or existing business. We want to make it easy to leverage the power of the Internet without the usual high expenses charged by many Internet Business Consultants...

If you look at the majority of businesses leveraging the Internet, they follow a business structure similar to following...

1. Create a WEB presence to convey a message about their company.

2. Begin by enhancing existing sales structures by providing web pages that describe your products or services.

3. Move into the development of a simple on line catalog.

4. Allow people to browse items in the catalog and allow them to place items in an electronic shopping cart. Allow them to checkout or purchase the items, collecting billing and shipping information

5. Receive electronic notices of the sales orders/inquiries and run detailed invoicing reports containing credit card information.

6. Manually, confirm credit cards using your own internal banking/processing scheme.

7. Upon approval, ship the merchandise...

8. Once Internet sales reach a point to where it is no longer feasible to manually confirm incoming credit card information, move into the development of a real time Internet credit card verification scheme which deposits money directly into your bank...

Many people, unfortunately, jump right into step 8, without any idea of the expense and complex development necessary to create a successful Internet shopping structure... We believe, with the existing web page design tools available like Microsoft’s FrontPage2000, the average person with basic computer skills can now develop their own web presence with a more unique and personal touch. Currently, many Internet Business Consultants charge thousands to do just this... That's not including additional expenses involved in programming shopping carts and other electronic catalog interfaces. There are fortune 500 companies that think nothing of spending upwards of 500,000.00 for an electronic mall type interface...

Nevertheless, developing a basic web presence is extremely easy, developing a shopping cart and order collection system (described as 4-7 above) is another level of complexity not easily handled by the majority of web design tools out on the market. This is, where we come in.... We have tried to develop our shopping cart system "EasyBasket" so the same person who designs the web pages can also design the electronic catalog and shopping/order collection system (items 4-7 above) without the added complexity of programming. We also, wanted to make it as affordable as possible... We think we did. Our charge is 1.00 when a customer actually submits an order to you.

What is EasyBasket?

EasyBasket, is an Internet based E-Commerce solution service. Totally automated, EasyBasket provides Web Designers and ISP's the ability to provide professional, secure E-Commerce service for Business to Business or Business to Consumer markets. WebSites located anywhere in the world, on any ISP’s web server can link to EasyBasket to provide a total secure shopping cart and order processing facility to the merchants who maintain them. Thanks to a myriad of HTML web site design tools, creating and publishing a web site has never been easier. Nevertheless, commerce enabling these web sites has always been a complex and expensive task usually requiring professional Internet marketing and consulting services. The design goal for EasyBasket was to provide an affordable, EASY to implement, solution for the startup or established internet merchant willing to brave the waters of Internet commerce. EasyBasket is a service based solution to E-Commerce. There is no complicated software which needs to be purchased, downloaded or integrated into an existing web site or web server in order to provide E-Commerce services. All E-Commerce functionality is handled through any Internet web browser. We feel that our pricing strategy is unmatched and provides a no-risk option for the "would-be" Internet merchant willing to test-drive EasyBasket.

How does a merchant use EasyBasket to E-Commerce enable a new or existing web site?

When an order is placed via the Internet through a web site utilizing EasyBasket, the following process takes place:

The EasyBasket merchant is sent an email regarding the sale. No detailed or confidential information is sent in this email. The email has a URL link that the merchant can click on. If followed, the URL link brings the merchant to an EasyBasket Services Server.

Whether the merchant follows the email link or visits the EasyBasket Services Server directly (through any existing Internet web browser), they are prompted for their private password and email address. If approved, the merchant is displayed a merchant maintenance area which allows the merchant to perform the following tasks:

1. Run detailed, summary or historical sales reports regarding all sales processed through EasyBasket. Displaying sales orders in this fashion (through the secure EasyBasket Services Server) provides a secure method for the merchant to collect, and process orders or sales inquiries through the Internet. Once again, no special software is required for this procedure. All E-Commerce functions can be handheld through any Internet browser.

2. Modify the merchant store information. The merchant is provided a host of configurable options regarding the setup and function of their order collection system. Included among (but not limited to) these options is the ability to define such things as:

• Additional fields necessary to collect information from the shopper. These could be customized to collect information such as sales rep codes, customer accounts etc…

• A flexible method of defining and collecting sale tax.

• A flexible method of calculating and describing freight charges for an Internet order.

• A flexible method of defining the types of credit cards and payment strategies necessary to transact business.

What about real time credit card processing?

Do you need real time credit card processing to use EasyBasket?

NO…

But if you do or when you grow into it, then the following should help you understand the facts regarding this process.

The Basics

Prior to understanding how EasyBasket can provide real time credit card verification, processing and deposit into a merchant bank account, a review of some basics in merchant card processing is in order. For those already accepting credit cards for an existing business, your one step ahead in the game… For those who are not, here are a few basics…

Internet aside for a moment, if you had a regular brick and mortar business and wanted to accept credit cards from your customers you would probably go to your bank for advise. Your bank would most probably tell you to establish a merchant account either through them or some other financial institution. Similar and sometimes considered the same, your merchant account is the business account money from credit card transactions is deposited into. There is usually a setup fee and re-occurring charge associated with obtaining a merchant account.

So who gives you those devices that swipe credit cards when a shopper makes a purchase?

These devices are usually provided by someone called a processor. The processors job is to provide you with the hardware (device) and or software necessary to collect, confirm and process credit cards. The processor communicates with the credit card establishment (i.e. American Express, MasterCard, Visa etc…) to approve the credit card. If approved, the processor will then deposit the funds into your merchant account. The processor and the bank providing the merchant account can be separate entities or they can be one in the same. There is almost always a setup fee, re-occurring monthly charge and a per transaction charge levied by the processor for each transaction processed through them

From EasyBasket to Your Bank Account...

Now that the basics are covered I am ready to explain how real time credit card verification works over the Internet, specifically using EasyBasket.

As you should be aware of by now, EasyBasket securely collects orders from your shoppers along with the credit card information necessary for processing. With nothing more, a merchant will already have the ability to run secure sales reports via EasyBasket and manually process credit cards with whatever means already provided by their processor. This is usually done utilizing some hardware device or computer software that allows a merchant to manually enter credit card information for processing.

For real time processing, EasyBasket has the ability to communicate securely with any US based credit card processor. This is accomplished by using a third party that acts as a secure gateway for communication between EasyBasket and the processor. The company providing this gateway service is called ANACOM. Although there are many other gateway service companies, we chose ANACOM because of their professionalism and reliability of service. Of course, ANACOM needs to get paid also and they do this by asking the merchant to also sign up with them as a customer. Again, this involves a setup fee, a re-occurring monthly charge and a per transaction charge.

Everybody Gets a Cut…

So, in the end, for every order processed through EasyBasket the merchant pays:

1.00 to EasyBasket

A per transaction fee to the secure gateway

A per transaction fee to the processor

A per transaction fee to the credit card company
Sometimes the processor collects the transaction fee for the credit card establishment.

Then there are the monthly re-occurring fees to:

The secure gateway

The processor

Possibly the credit card company

There is no signup fee or monthly re-occurring fees associated with EasyBasket. Only the 1.00 per transaction fee charged for each order processed through EasyBasket. If the merchant does not sell anything, EasyBasket does not get paid.

Don’t forget the initial signup fees for:

The merchant account

The Processor

The secure gateway

In Summary

You will also find companies such as CardServices, CyberCash and even ANACOM that can act or setup all the above mentioned accounts. You will also find some that even handle the order collection part (shopping cart process) instead of EasyBasket. Setup fees, re-occurring fees and per transaction rates will vary widely. Although I cannot vouch for their integrity or flexibility I am quite sure they charge quite a bit for the whole service wrap.

Keep a watchful eye as you shop for these services, there are literally thousands to choose from. I personally believe the best place to begin your search for a processor is from your own financial institution or some other bank with a good reputation for business class service.

I hope this discussion is informative and helps you make the right decision in Internet ventures.

Benjamin Siegel
Technical Director
EasyBasket Services