I believe you are looking for this part of the wikipedia page.
To repeat proof 2 (I like that one -- it's nice and clean):
Let $P(x_1,\dots,x_n) = \prod\limits_{i<j} (x_i-x_j)$ (so for $n=3$ we have $P(x_1,x_2,x_3)=(x_1-x_2)(x_1-x_3)(x_2-x_3)$). Then the sign (or signature or parity) of $\sigma$ is nothing more than $$\mbox{sgn}(\sigma) = \frac{P(x_{\sigma(1)},\dots,x_{\sigma(n)})}{P(x_1,\dots,x_n)}$$
Why? Since the numerator and denominator have the same factors except for signs. The number of "$-$" contributed by the numerator is exactly the size of $\{(i,j)\;|\; i<j \mbox{ and } \sigma(i)>\sigma(j) \}$ (the number of factors flipped around). Also, notice that since this fraction is $\pm 1$ (it is a constant) so further shuffling of its inputs does not effect its value.
Now we can see that
$$\mbox{sgn}(\sigma\tau) = \frac{P(x_{\sigma\tau(1)},\dots,x_{\sigma\tau(n)})}{P(x_1,\dots,x_n)} = \frac{P(x_{\sigma(1)},\dots,x_{\sigma(n)})}{P(x_1,\dots,x_n)} \frac{P(x_{\sigma\tau(1)},\dots,x_{\sigma\tau(n)})}{P(x_{\sigma(1)},\dots,x_{\sigma(n)}} = \mbox{sgn}(\sigma)\mbox{sgn}(\tau)
$$
Finally notice that a transposition has sign $-1$. Thus each transposition flips the sign (parity/signature). So the definitions match.