E-Commerce Services

The "Real Deal" Technical Requirements

Merchants! Supercharge Your Web Site WithService

ECHONLINE^® service is not a one-stop e-commerce service. It is a merchant account AND a payment gateway. Here’s what that means to you.

• Unless your business has a savvy programmer, you will need to get outside assistance to putservice to work for your Web site. Some merchants have the ability to program their Web site to use. But most merchants have these programs developed by a Web developer or ISP.

• Your site will need a "shopping cart" program or a simple on-line order form. These can be purchased off the shelf, or may be provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Again, ECHO does not currently offer one.
• Links from the shopping cart or order form to ECHO must be developed. Typically these are special applications known as scripts (CGI, Active Server Pages, etc.). They require programming support that most merchants leave to their ISP or Web developer. (Note that these are also available from ECHO’s development partners.) 

Other important information:

• cannot be used by merchants who have store-front Web sites on AOL. It’s not that we don’t like AOL, it’s just that AOL requires its merchants to use an AOL partner as their credit card processor. BUT you can easily build a store on any AOL Website and have your checkout page for each product on MerchantAmerica so that you can still receive ECHO's low prices.
• cannot be used by Yahoo! Store merchants for the same reason AOL merchants cannot process with us.
• You are required to have an e-mail address to set up.
• In order to review your account transactions on-line, you are strongly advised to have access to the Internet using one of the common browser programs (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, etc.)

A note about ISPs:

• If you don’t want to use one of ECHO’s ISP partners, the ISP or Web developer you do choose should be familiar with e-commerce sites.
• Whoever you choose for your ISP must provide "fulfillment services" for you. This doesn’t mean they must actually ship products for you, but it does mean that you must notify them when products have been shipped for each order.

Apply for an merchant account today! 

Note: ECHO can serve U.S.-based businesses only.

Online Account Management with MerchantAmerica