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FREE online courses on ECOMMERCE FUNDAMENTALS - Electronic Payment Systems
- Banking network |
A banking network allows:
1.
The consumer and the associated browser to interact with the
consumer.
2. The merchant system residing on
an on-line Web server with a connection to Web browsers over the Internet.
3. An on-line shopping mall that
may help direct consumers to the merchant server.
4. The background banking network
to support on-line payments from the consumer to the merchant.
A consumer interacts with the on-line commerce system through
a Web browser.
Typically, the consumer first accesses a shopping mall and
then uses the hyperlinks from the mall to access the merchant's home page.
The graphical display for the consumer should closely emulate
the real shopping environment. So, it pays to present colored graphics and 3D
images. However, a typical home computer may have a 14.4 or 28.8 kilobit/s modem
and it may take a significantly long time to transfer color images to the
homebuyers.
A shopping mall is where most consumers first visit for a
shopping spree. The connections between the shopping malls and a merchant's
storefront are evident. Typically, a merchant should be listed with several
on-line shopping malls.
A merchant system consists of a home page and related
software to manage the business.
The banking network consists of several components. First,
there is a bank that processes the on-line financial transactions for the given
merchant. This bank maintains the accounts for the merchant, authorizes and
processes the payments.
The merchant's bank also maintains a link with the
consumer's bank for verifying the transactions. The link between the merchant
and his bank is often real-time so as to allow on-line authorization of consumer
payments. The consumer's bank typically has an off-line link to the consumer,
for example, via postal mail or
e-mail.
