I'm sure everyone is just itching to get started with osCommerce. You've got customers waiting, products to shift off the shelves, money to be earned, deals to be made, and a million other things that need to be dealt with. Why on earth, then, do we need a chapter on how osCommerce works? Why don't we jump straight ahead to the chapter on configuring osCommerce, or better yet, why not jump straight to data entry and manipulation? There are several answers to these questions, and the most important one is that I won't be comfortable if I know that there are thousands of business owners out there basing their livelihood on a technology that they don't understand. And that's my answer!
The answer you probably want, which is equally correct, is that by learning how to use osCommerce properly, you will become far more efficient and more importantly good at building your online retail site. In order to be efficient, you need to have a sound appreciation of how things...