Order forms range in sophistication from rudimentary to complex. Choose which is right for you.
Level 1. At the very least you should calculate the total amount of the purchase. Order forms without any provision to pay on-line are only suitable for telephone and/or postal mail, faxed orders.
Level 2 . As for Level 1 plus credit card payments.
If you already have a merchant account
If you are prepared to verify credit cards yourself, you could use www.Hushmail.com * to encrypt an order all the way from the customer’s computer to your computer.
This form is secured by 2048-bit encryption
www.Hushmail.com charges around $8.00 per month for the privilege. However, your website doesn't have to be hosted on a secure site. You don't have to move your site to another web host. You collect your orders by logging on to your account at www.Hushmail.com
You will have to download decrypting software into your computer but that is easy.
Note: www.Hushmail.com decrypting software will not run on an Apple Mac computer.
If you are being hosted by a secure server (identified by https://) be sure that all steps in the transmission are in fact, secure connections. It may be that only the customer’s order is securely sent to the server. If you receive orders by email, those emails are probably not secure.
If you do not want to verify credit cards yourself, you can use a service like www.iTransact.com * to accept the credit card for you.iTransact provides a secure connection for credit card payments (also personal checks) without being obliged to use their shopping cart. The customer's account is immediately debited and your account credited.
If you do not already have a merchant account, www.iTransact.com * will set up a merchant account for you.
Level 3. Using a shopping card. The customer selects items, adds them to the shopping cart just as you would in a supermarket. Then, checks out by paying with a credit card, which is verified at that time. If you don’t have a merchant account, you could use the www. PayPal.com* shopping cart. www.PayPal.com (now owned by eBay) will verify your customer’s card and take payments for you – for a fee. If you want to have your own merchant account and your own shopping cart, www.iTransact.com * will set it up.
Shopping carts, by nature add complexity to the site, and may be overkill. Shopping carts abound everywhere! Only more sophisticated examples can accomodate discount for volume pricing, variable shipping and be sure the tax is calculated.
