The companies involved:

Our server in Rockville, Maryland
Our Shopping Cart in Los Angeles
PayPal, our Credit Card processor
Your Banking Institution
Our Bank in Chicago

1) You look at products on our server from Houston.
2) Interested, you click "buy", the page goes to a secure area. You can see this when it switches from http: to https: the "s" represents secure. A random 128 bit number/ letter combination is created for this file.
3) It transfers to our shopping cart module, where you input data into an industry standard form.
4) You click "submit" and wait. In the background is where the technology becomes incredible.
5) Your info goes to the credit card processor. It verifies your name, address, e-mail and shipping address. At the same time, it fires off your credit card data to your bank, then secures a pre-authorized amount for the total of your bill. The information is returned.. gathered, cross referenced, then sends both parties confirmation of the order. This all done in the blink of an eye.
6) When the order is complete, we connect with the credit card processor and click "shipped". Your card is billed, an e-mail is sent and the card is debited with funds deposited to our bank in 48 hours.