XAMPP

XAMPP is a free, cross-platform web server, consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MySQL database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages.

Requirements and features

 

XAMPP only requires one zip, tar or exe file to be downloaded and run, and little or no configuration of the various components that make up the web server is required. XAMPP is regularly updated to incorporate the latest releases of Apache/MySQL/PHP and Perl. It also comes with a number of other modules including OpenSSL and phpMyAdmin.

Because its user interface is considered simple to use it is sometimes called the “lazy man’s WAMP/LAMP installation.”

Installing XAMPP takes less time than installing every installation contained in the package as a separate install.

The result is self-contained, multiple instances can exist on a computer, and a given instance can be copied from one computer to another.

It is offered in both a full, standard version and a smaller version (known as XAMPP Lite). Add-on extension modules are also available.

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osCommerce

osCommerce (“open source Commerce”) is an e-commerce and online store-management software program. It can be used on any web server that has PHP and MySQL installed. It is available as free software under the GNU General Public License.

Key Features

The following is a list of key features of osCommerce MS2.2 as stated on the osCommerce site:

1. Compatible with PHP 4 and MySQL – easily portable to version 5.
2. Compatible with all major browsers.
3. Multi-lingual English, German and Spanish by default.
4. Automatic web-based installation.
5. Unlimited number of products and categories.
6. Automatic setup of e-commerce payment systems: Authorize.net, 2Checkout.com, iPayment.de, PayPal.com, PsiGate.com, SECPay.com, and TrustCommerce.com; Many other add-on ecommerce payment systems, off-line (manual) credit card payments) and on-line payment processing.
7. Multi-currency support via manual update from exchange rate server.
8. Support for dynamic images (one image per product).
9. Supports physical products as well as product downloads.
10. Web-based administration module.
11. Database backup and restore.
12. Temporary and permanent shopping carts.
13. Secure transactions with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) support.
14. Many shipping options including by weight, price, or destination.
15. Real-time shipping quote integration with UPS, USPS.
16. Zone-based shipping options as well as a free shipping option as part of Order Totals Module.
17. Full tax functionality, included compounded taxes, different zones for different products.

 

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Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

An -company, application-to-application communication of data in standard format for business transactions, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a set of standards for structuring information that is to be electronically exchanged between and within businesses, organizations, government entities and other groups. The standards describe structures that emulate documents, for example purchase orders to automate purchasing. The term EDI is also used to refer to the implementation and operation of systems and processes for creating, transmitting, and receiving EDI documents.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) can be formally defined as ‘The transfer of structured data, by agreed message standards, from one computer system to another without human intervention’. Most other definitions used are variations on this theme.

 

Advantages of using EDI over paper systems:-

 

EDI and other similar technologies save company money by providing alternative to or replacing information flows that require a great deal of human interaction and materials such as paper documents, meetings, faxes, etc. Even when paper documents are maintained in parallel with EDI exchange, e.g. printed shipping manifests, electronic exchange and the use of data from that exchange reduces the handling costs of sorting, distributing, organizing, and searching paper documents. EDI and similar technologies allow a company to take advantage of the benefits of storing and manipulating data electronically without the cost of manual entry.

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E Bay

eBay Inc. is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in thirty other countries. eBay Inc also owns PayPal, Skype, and other businesses.

 

The online auction web site was founded in San Jose, California on September 3, 1995 by French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb, part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar’s own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus.

The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83.

eBay offers various online help features, including a library of self-help resources, e-mail contact forms and “Live Help,” which lets users chat with customer service representatives via instant messaging. Although this is not available to users on international sites such as eBay.co.uk, members of international eBay websites are welcome to utilize eBay.com’s Live Help service. Excepting Live Help, eBay does not offer phone support to its customers except to sellers of the rank “Bronze PowerSeller” and above, the company’s term for members who sell at least an average of $1,000 worth of goods per month on the site, as well as to eBay Store owners. 

 

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Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American e-commerce company based in Seattle, Washington. It was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet and was one of the iconic stocks of the late 1990s dot-com bubble. After the bubble burst, Amazon faced skepticism about its business model, but it made its first annual profit in 2003.

Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, and launched in 1995, Amazon.com began as an online bookstore but soon diversified its product lines by adding VHSs, DVDs, music CDs, MP3s, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and more.

Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, and Japan. It ships globally on selected products.

The company’s global headquarters is located on Seattle, Washington’s Beacon Hill. It has offices throughout other parts of greater Seattle including Union Station and the Columbia Center.

Amazon has announced plans to move its headquarters to the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle beginning in mid-2010, with full occupancy by 2011. This move will consolidate all Seattle employees onto the new 11-building campus.

Amazon has steadily branched into retail sales of music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, software, consumer electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items, toys & games, baby products, apparel, sporting goods, gourmet food, jewelry, watches, health and personal-care items, beauty products, musical instruments, industrial & scientific supplies, groceries, and more.

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Shopping cart software

Definition

Shopping cart software is software used in e-commerce to assist people making purchases online, analogous to the American English term ‘shopping cart‘. In British English it is generally known as a shopping basket, almost exclusively shortened on websites to ‘basket’.

The software allows online shopping customers to place items in the cart. Upon checkout, the software typically calculates a total for the order, including shipping and handling (i.e. postage and packing) charges and the associated taxes, as applicable.

The Components

Shopping cart software typically consists of two components:

Storefront: the area of the Web store that is accessed by visitors to the online shop. Category, product, and other pages (e.g. search, best sellers, etc.) are dynamically generated by the software based on the information saved in the store database.

Administration: the area of the Web store that is accessed by the merchant to manage the online shop. The amount of store management features changes depending on the sophistication of the shopping cart software, but in general a store manager is able to add and edit products, categories, discounts, shipping and payment settings, etc. Order management features are also included in many shopping cart programs.

Licensed vs. Hosted options

Shopping cart software can be generally categorized into two categories.

Licensed software: The software is downloaded and then installed on a Web server. This is most often associated with a one-time fee, although there are many free products available as well. The main advantages of this option are that the merchant owns a license and therefore can host it on any Web server that meets the server requirements, and that the source code can often be accessed and edited to customize the application.

Hosted service: The software is never downloaded, but rather is provided by a hosted service provider and is generally paid for on a monthly/annual basis; also known as the application service provider (ASP) software model. Some of these services also charge a percentage of sales in addition to the monthly fee. This model often has predefined templates that a user can choose from to customize their look and feel. In this model users typically trade less ability to modify or customize the software with the advantage of having the vendor continuously keep the software up to date for security patches as well as adding new features added.

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Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction’s lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.A small percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web.Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as Business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market).Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.

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