Doing business on the Internet is tricky. To keep up with the competition, you need an online
store displayed in attention-grabbing Web pages. You need to continually update product information
at minimal cost and with little down time. You need a secure payment system. To do all these things
and more, Microsoft offers Merchant Server.
Merchant Server is a complete system for doing business on the Internet with flair. Merchant
Server is a Windows NT Server-based management product that lets you create compelling Web sites for
marketing products and use a relational database to offer personalized service. Although Merchant
Server does not magically create an online store overnight, it offers example stores to help you set
up your site quickly and easily. Let's look at some of Merchant Server's advantages, its components,
setup and installation, the included example stores, and a Web page designed with Merchant Server's
directives.
The Merchant Server Store
Merchant Server lets you create a responsive online store for your company. It offers a
convenient shopping experience for your customers and a secure credit card payment system. One of
Merchant Server's greatest advantages to sellers is its ability to target customers. Merchant
Server's extensive order tracking system lets you offer special bargains to your customers based on
their past purchases, and suggest items related to your customers' current purchases (cross-selling)
or suggest similar items of better quality (up-selling). For example, if someone buys a hard disk,
you can suggest other items needed to install it--a Y power cable, extra ribbon cables, and so
forth. Because you can develop customer profiles, you can target specific markets for sales or other
marketing efforts. Merchant Server has several other attractive features:
- Secure transactions--You can assure customers that the information they send is private
because Merchant Server uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) channel encryption and Secure
Transaction Technology (STT) to protect credit card information.
- Support for Java and ActiveX technology--You can take advantage of today's technology. For
example, you can use Merchant Server's Page Generator (pgen) features to combine several Web pages
into one.
- Multiple stores on a single server--You can develop a virtual shopping mall by leasing space
to smaller companies that can't afford Merchant Server and the equipment to run it.
- Scalable and extensible--You can keep the store on one server or distribute it over several
servers to provide load balancing for heavy hitters. Like most other Microsoft products, Merchant
Server is extensible through Open API. This API is valuable for integrating Merchant Server with
in-house systems (such as inventory fulfillment) and other software vendor components.
- Instant changes--You can change information dynamically so that price changes in the database
are online instantly, without rebooting the system. You can create sales and promotional offers on
the fly.
- Flexible data schema--You can reference your products from various formats, such as Microsoft
Word or Microsoft Excel. You can generate product pages from your existing database.
- Open data interfaces--You can access product information from current databases via the Open
Database Connectivity (ODBC) standard or use a separate database for Internet products.
Microsoft doesn't tie Merchant Server's payment mechanisms to any specific online payment
system (such as the included software from VeriFone). Instead, Microsoft continues to work with
third-party online payment providers so you have a choice of providers. Payment provision is a
separate service; if you choose direct online payments, you need to set up a system with a
third-party company and your financial institution.
Setup and Installation
To install Merchant Server, you need to be familiar with NT Server, Microsoft Internet
Information Server (IIS), relational databases and database management systems such as Microsoft SQL
Server and ODBC, and configuration management with the Registry Editor. Merchant Server requires NT
Server 3.51 or 4.0, IIS 1.0C or later, an ODBC-compliant database, 64MB of RAM, 55MB of available
hard-disk space, and TCP/IP networking protocol. If you don't install and run SQL Server during
Merchant Server setup, Merchant Server will not install the starter stores. You can install the
starter stores later, but doing everything at the same time is easier and less confusing.
Before you install Merchant Server, create a database device and a database on your SQL Server
for each of your stores (using SQL Server Enterprise Manager) and create a data source name (DSN)
for the database (using the Control Panel ODBC32 Item). Keep the data device names and DSNs simple,
short, consistent, and handy.
Installations are either single server or distributed on many machines. Some distributed
installations require additional licenses, depending on your intended use. In a multisystem
installation, Merchant Server Setup initially installs the starter store content (templates and
element files) and the system assets (images and ActiveX controls) on the system. The assets
contain the Controller, which stores Registry information for all Merchant Server components, and
the Router, which communicates with IIS. Then systems administrators copy the content and the assets
onto the Store Server. (The Merchant Server documentation provides complete details and suggestions
for the best ways to perform each type of installation.)
Installations are custom or complete. In a custom installation, you select only the starter
store and the merchant components that you designate. In a complete installation, you install all
Merchant Server options. Complete installations are great training for beginners on development
servers.
Installing Merchant Server is easier than installing a Microsoft Office application. You need
to keep handy the names of the database devices you created for your starter stores and the DSNs
you've designated for database connectivity. Merchant Server prompts you to match the DSNs and
database device names to the stores. After you install Merchant Server, you can copy the starter
stores and modify them to create your stores, in a fraction of the time you could create stores from
scratch. If you have space, install all the starter stores on your development server. When you
create your production server, copy only the code you plan to publish on the Web. This code will be
your live store.
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