E-commerce consists of the buying and selling of products or services over the Internet, and usually includes an online shopping cart and a payment gateway solution. Shopping cart applications, which are free through InstallCentral, provide the ability to showcase products and lead a customer through the process of making his or her selection and checking out. These applications are recommended for intermediate to expert Web users.

As the majority of a customer's experience is spent perusing products and services on a site, it's important to select shopping cart software that looks professional to a visitor and suits a business' needs from an ease-of-use and functionality standpoint. Most shopping cart applications provide the ability to upload product images, assign pricing, calculate shipping costs and tax by location, give discounts by quantity or special coupons, send e-mail receipts and more. The actual credit card transaction is separate and handled by an online merchant gateway provider, such as PowerPay (our preferred credit card processing partner) or a third-party such as PayPal.

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