Show Me the Money!

A WebQuest for college level E-Commerce students

Designed by Don Dean

cis191@miracosta.edu

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Teacher Page

Introduction

When doing business online one of the most important things is making money. To make it you have to collect it. To collect it you need a good, easy-to-use, and cost effective method. Unless you are going to have customers send you checks or money orders, that means you need an Electronic Payment System. Picking one can be a very confusing and time-consuming process. This lesson will help you make this important decision.

Task

When trying to decide on an Electronic Payment System the ultimate question is:

Considering the needs of my business, which Electronic Payment System is best?

A small “ma and pa” home-based business has different needs from a large multi-national corporation.

Whether your business is large or small you need to consider these questions:

  1. What kinds of online payments need to be processed? (Visa, MasterCard, electronic cash, etc.)
  2. What other services do you need? For instance do you need a built-in shopping cart, or do you need to create one customized for your needs?
  3. Do you need a merchant account? Can the service help you get one?
  4. How will sensitive information be safeguarded? Is it secure?
  5. How much does it cost? Are there any additional or hidden fees that may not be immediately obvious?

Process

  1. You’ll be formed into groups of four. Each group member will pose as the representative a different type business:

    The home-based “Ma and Pa” business.
    This is a small personal business operated out of your home. Examples might be selling crafts/art work, collectibles or Web design services. Pick a particular home-based business and look at the Electronic Payment System options through those eyes.
    A small store owner who wants to start a online business. 
    Examples might be a local surf shop, a clothing store, or the seller of a specialty item or service. Pretend to be the business owner and explore the Electronic Payment System options through those eyes.
    A large B2C (Business to Consumer) company.
    This can be a chain store, insurance business, travel service company, etc (Williams-Sonoma, GEICO, Travelocity). Pretend you represent a business of this type and do an analysis of Electronic Payment System through their eyes.
    A B2B or B2G (Business to Business or Business to Government) company.
    These are companies that sell directly to other business or to government (includes military, government agencies or school districts). Examples include Grainger, SAIC, and LexisNexis. Pretend you’ve been tasked to select which Electronic Payment System would be best.


  2. Compare three of the services below. As you do, ask the questions listed in the Task area above and jot down your answers.

    Verisign - http://www.verisign.com/products/payment.html
    When you visit Verisign make sure you sign up to do the tour of Payflow Pro or Payflow Link. When they send you the email reply, follow the links in the email to do the tour.

    Paypal - http://www.paypal.com
    When you visit PayPal click on Merchant tools and then "Learn More" under "Need to accept Credit Cards?"

    A provider of your own choosing.

    Possibilities include:
    • Cybersource - http://www.cybersource.com - a large, well-known company that provides a wide-range of payment services for companies large and small including options for B2C, B2B, B2G and PayPal.
    • Costco – it’s a not so well kept secret that Costco offers one of the lowest priced ways for Merchants to accept Credit Cart Payments. They even offer services for online businesses. To check it out you may have to be a member and you will have to talk to a sales rep. It’s more than worth exploring, especially for small businesses.
      For info http://www.costco.com/Service/FeaturePage.aspx?ProductNo=10166089
    • Turnkey Store – Turnkey store such as YahooStores!, BigStep or MivaMerchant, usually have built-in Electronic Payment Systems. Check them out.
    • Your current provider - If you already have an online Credit Card processor other than Verisign or Paypal, please use that company.
    • Another of your choosing - Visit http://www.business.com and enter Credit Card Processing in the search box. Then select from the credit card processing companies listed there or do your own Web search to find a company.

  3. After doing the research arrange an online chat session for your group. Use a built-in chat room provided by Blackboard. Select a member of your group to be the moderator. The moderator should help keep the discussion going. Spend 1-2 hours discussing which service is best for your business. In the course of the discussion try to answer all the questions above and explain why the Electronic Payment Systems you selected would be best of the three for your pretend business. Explain which of the three would be the worst. Respond where appropriate to your group members when appropriate.
  4. When finished pick a representative to report your findings. The reporter should cut and paste your discussion into a Word document and attach the document to a post in the area provided on Blackboard to turn in this assignment.

Evaluation

Each individual will be graded on their contributions during the online chat. See the rubric below:

Beginning

1

Developing

2

Accomplished

3

Exemplary

4

Score

 

Teamwork

 

 Team member
didn't answer all questions when giving report and didn't respond to other students.		 Team member gave a report that only answered some of the questions and only responded somewhat to other students. Team member gave a complete report but only responded somewhat to other students. Team member gave a complete report and responding to other student's reports thoughtfully and helped moderate or report.

 

Quality of Role Playing

 

 Student tried to represent of position of type of business they selected but
didn't succeed.		 Student demonstrated some understanding of position of type of business they selected. Student demonstrated good understanding of position of type of business they selected. Student demonstrated thorough masterty of position of type of business they selected.

 

Answered all task questions

 

 Student answered 1-2 questions when explaining which service would be best.. Student answered three questions when explaining which service would be best.. Student answered four questions when explaining which service would be best. Student answered all five questions when explaining which service would be best.

Conclusion

This lesson should provide you with some great options for Electronic Payment Systems. It’s also designed to help you understand what different size businesses need to consider when making these decisions.

Credits & References

Images provided by Absolutely Free Clip Art and FreeFoto.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

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