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Commerce on the world wide web has always been a study in contradictions. One example: store owners must defend against hackers and other forms of online intrusion, but must also publicize and promote the addresses of their servers. Another: the online store has no brick and mortar storefront, but because of its far reach and low overhead it sells more, and therefore requires far more brick and mortar warehouse space. Finally: if a site looks more like fun than business, it will often actually conduct more business.

That last one is interesting. No matter how sweet or goofy a site looks, in order to be successful in online retail, it must have use of an ecommerce solution that is "all business" about protecting the store and its customers. As the site's visitors begin to browse the merchandise and select items for purchase, they see the first part of that ecommerce solution, the shopping cart. The shopping cart can be dressed up in a pink t-shirt to camouflage its serious nature, but underneath it still must wear a suit and tie.

Online retailers cut corners here which they should not. Most of the heavy lifting for your online store software is done by the shopping cart. So, you may order that pink T-shirt in extra large. This piece of puzzle has got the means for the presentation of merchandise, identification of the purchases, application of discounts, totaling of purchases and capturing the customer's payment in a way that everyone involved is protected.

Those are the basics for a simple shopping cart package. Some provide additional intelligence regarding average customer data, browsing behavior, and purchasing trends. Mostly though, the website needs the cart to turn the inventory from pictures on the site into inventory numbers that can be tracked, and from there into prices that can be calculated.

The payment details are then provided to a firm which processes the payment. This is done by billing the credit card of the buyer and then depositing the transaction amount in the seller's account. All of these should be done through channels which are verified to be anti-fraudulent and free of risks for the consumer. Secure online transactions require constant upgrade of electronic commerce software to keep up with new kinds of threats.

It's fun designing a site for your online store that's filled with pink t-shirts and other frivolities. However, you also need to feature suits and ties in the business end of things, such as the accounting and security parts of your business. While dressing your functional aspects, be sure to think about adding a sweater vest, cuff links, a top hat, or a monocle to give your business a solid feel. True, you'll want your online store to be warm and appealing, but keep in mind that you don't want to limit its functionality just to make it cute