What are the processes of e-commerce shopping?

Answer 1

Shopping itself probably isn't the right question to ask, but rather the ecommerce transaction. Once the consumer selects the right product, he or she is often asked to put it in a virtual shopping cart.

The user is then asked to input senstive information via a merchant order form to start the payment process. This can include the credit card information, the shipping address and other transaction details.

This information goes over a secured network (with SSL encryption). The payment software incorporated on the webserver sends the encrypted data to the acquiring processor for authorization. During this step a request to hold the funds for purchase is sent over to the cardholder's bank.

The acquiring processor either authorizes a certain amount of money or declines the transaction. An authorization reduces the available credit limit but does not actually put a charge on the customer's bill or move money to the merchant.

If the transaction is authorized, a "capture" is the next step. The capture takes the information from the successful authorization and charges the authorized amount of money to the consumer's credit card. In line with bank card (Visa/MasterCard) association rules, the merchant is not allowed to capture transactions until the ordered service has been delivered and the consumer granted an access say to a website.

The final step is to "settle" the transaction between the merchant and the acquiring processor usually done at the point of delivery of service and activation of consumer account. Captures and credits usually accumulate into a "batch" and are settled as a group. When a batch is submitted, the merchant's payment-enabled Web server connects with the acquiring processor to finalize the transactions and transfer monies to the merchant bank account.