Ecommerce has created much hype these days as it has made the shopping as well as selling much more easy and flexible for the buyer as well as seller. Ecommerce website is a must for having an online business. It is essential for the owner to have a merchant account and payment gateway for collecting the earning made by sales of online products while conducting online business.  In fact, an Ecommerce design is quite complex and it requires several important features that need to functioning smoothly and for this reason only, it is preferable to hire a professional. Here are some of the important things that you need to know about the Ecommerce web design.

Merchant Accounts:

This is a specially devised account for the online retailers as it is this account that permits non-POS (Point Of Sale) transactions. The non-POS transactions takes place with the help of the credit cards but its only the number of the credit card mentioned and does not deal with the swiping of the card. Hence, a merchant account is quite different from a bank account in the terms of accepting cash from the credit cards which is later on deposited in a bank account.

Payment Gateways:

This is certainly the most important part that you need to know about. It is a payment gateway that is in the front end of the merchant account. It enables you to manage your transactions, earnings, and so on. The customer makes payment through the gateways that you provide such as PayPal, MasterCard and so on. In fact, a payment gateway is the connecting link between your ecommerce website and the merchant account. The details of the customer’s credit card are entered in the payment gateway which is submitted to the processing bank. The bank then approves the payment and sends the response to the retailer’s account. Hence, payment gateway is the most important feature of any online transaction. Few of the well recognized payment gateways are PayPal, Authorize.Net, Verisign, 2CheckOut.com, Linkpoint, and so on. It is necessary that while selecting a payment gateway the online retailer must look for the things such as CISP, SDP, and DISC. This are all meant for the security of the financial transaction taking place online and prevents any fraud.

No business success is ever possible without the implementation of right methods so is the case in online business too. Ecommerce is booming in today’s world but while building an ecommerce website it is necessary that it has all the necessary tools in it. One of the most important tools for Ecommerce is a reliable web shopping cart.

In fact, the whole online business is based on the online shopping cart as it is through this that the orders are placed and received over the internet. Website shopping cart permits the customer to add the products to the cart and specify the quantity of goods required. Not only this shopping cart normally does the customer’s billing, gives shipping information, allow the consumer to place an order and make the payment as well.

There are several shopping cart solutions available and the one that you choose for your website is pretty much personal. Ecommerce web host provides with a choice list for shopping carts software. The selection of it depends on the kind of products sold by you and the number of estimated people who will use those products. However, it is better to ask for a demo of the shopping cart first of all so that you can choose the one that you require wisely.

The best way to select shopping cart software for your online business is by knowing a little bit more about it in general. One thing that you need to make sure is that it should have SSL. This is essential for the making secured transactions over the internet and it will also keep a track over customer’s credit card numbers. Make sure you check out the size of the cart and its maximum products limit. Too many products would lead the cart to perform slowly and it might result into losing out on your clients.

Several Ecommerce shopping cart solutions provides with templates that can be customized as per your needs. Recently, the shopping carts also include features such as affiliate system management programs, SEO tools, advanced shipping options and so on.

The most important step for starting an online business is to find a reliable web host. The task of finding a web host as per your requirements might be a difficult task but not if you know exactly what you are looking for. A good web host is especially required for an ecommerce website as it deals with direct online selling of the products over the internet. Hence, when selecting an ecommerce webhost for your Ecommerce website makes sure that you take care of the following points:

• Storage Space: Ideally speaking a normal website requires nearly 100 MB space and generally all reliable hosts will offer at least 1 GB space. However, when it comes to Ecommerce hosting, more amount of space becomes necessary as there will a shopping cart online storefront. The space and transfer play a vital role in determining the size of hosting that you will need. The merchant needs to be sure of the number of items that will placed for online shopping initially and then an equivalent space is to be hired also the future inclusions must be kept in mind.

• Bandwidth: Right amount of Bandwidth is also necessary and therefore, it is another important factor to think about. 25 to 50 GB bandwidth is an ideal for general websites but for an e-commerce website requires more bandwidth. When videos are there on the website it needs nearly 600 MB bandwidth. Thus, it is better to go for unlimited bandwidth plan but it is also necessary to read the terms and conditions properly before hiring a host.

• Secure Servers: This is a must for the all the websites but more so for an ecommerce website. Since, ecommerce website deals with the online selling of the products and services, it is necessary that the transaction is done safely and securely on the net. Hence, look for an ecommerce host who provides SSL encryption as it is provides guaranteed security for all the money transactions that take place.

• Private CGI-BIN: Having a private CGI-BIN directory is essential for the safety of the files. The files containing your data such as binary scripts, interactive programs as in shopping cart and payment processing will be all secured in this directory.

• Operating System and Program Language: It is necessary to know as to which operating system the host is offering.  An ecommerce website can be hosted on Windows server as well as UNIX system. You can choose the one according to your choice. However, the rates for both will change so make sure to select the one that is in your budget.

• Support System: The most important concern for the ecommerce website owner is to have good support from the webhost. There might arise several occasions when you require fixing improper working of the website. A smooth functioning of the website depends highly on a good webhost and in case of any problems like server down or others, a web host must be capable to fix the problem as soon as possible.

Web portal design is basically the most beneficial access point for the user of the web as they can easily go from one page to another navigating the information of their choices. All the portals have the information stored into links to various topics such as news, business, sports, entertainment, finance, travel and much more. Yahoo!, Google, AOL are popular portals on the internet. However, these portals can be called as personal portals as they store user’s history data, profile information, emails and so on. But there are other kinds of portals too!

The technologies are highly dynamic in nature and therefore the development of the web portal software led to the expansion in terms of its interface which can include corporate databases as well. This kind of portal is popularly known as enterprise web portal or business portals.

The online portal technology has enabled the lot many advantages as it is faster, user friendly and easier to access various products and services. Not only this, but the enterprise portals have improved communication and response time as well. The usage of an efficient web portal can add immensely to the overall productivity of the organization. Hence, the enterprise portals are becoming very essential for organizations of all sizes.

A corporate web portal design that works for the consumers and employees at the same time is also developed. This can help immensely in doing transactions easily and in a flexible way as it can maintain book-keeping and inventory keeping efficiently. Thus, it makes the work for the customer and the employee simple and easy. The easy accessibility that the web portal has the better it is for the user as they will return to the site quite often.

The W3C standards summary for Rich Internet Applications is the solution to the accessibility and usability problems of the Web 2.0. Web 2.0 has the issues of usability and accessibility due to the limitations of the XHTML. However, the Rich Internet Application offers novel ways of filling up the gaps in the XHTML through effective communication. The best part about using RIA is that it can enhance the accessibility of your websites immensely and that too instantly. One cannot claim a to be rich simply because it is developed by using Ajax, Flex or Silverlight there are certain primary principles that it must embody. Here are the six principles that exemplify rich applications:

• Principle No.1- Make It Direct-  This principle means in simple words means that "Where there is output, let there be input." as stated by Alan Cooper. It is important that the application allows direct manipulation. For instance, if any editing is required to be done in the content then instead of making a separate page it should allow the editing in the same page itself.

• Principle No.2- Keep it Lightweight-  Making use of contextual tools will enable you to create lightweight applications. What we mean by lightweight over here is that the applications should not cause much physical or mental effort to the user who is interacting through the application.

• Principle No.3- Stay on Same Page- Ajax has made it possible for the developer to develop a product that does not need to refresh the page every time. Refreshing a page with every click disrupts the mental flow of the user and hence, it is better to develop an application that keeps the user on one page itself for several sorts of communications.

• Principle No.4- Render an Invitation- Getting discovered is the most important thing on the web as there is plenty of content on the web. The easy to get your application discovered is by providing an invitation. The invitation will not make the user aware but will also take the communication to the next level. Invitations can be beneficial even when new features are introduced.

• Principle No.5- Use Visual Transitions- Flash has enabled the developer to use several visual transitions while developing the rich internet applications. The use of animations, cinematic effects, images and so on can be a very powerful tool for communication. This will enable you to enhance the overall look and feel of your website.

• Principle No. 6- React Immediately- The interface that is responsive is the best one to have for giving the users a complete satisfaction. A responsive product becomes very helpful in increasing the usability of the product.

Thus, these six principles together help you in developing a rich internet application that has amazing usability and accessibility.