What do I Need To Set Up An Ecommerce Buisness

[narendra_navin]

Hi,Im new here,Ive been doing some research on E-commerce but I seem to be missing some facts,could you pls help out.

1.How do I link my shopping cart to an account,

2.Do I need to create a special account for the funds to be transfered to.

3.Is there a complete solution software package to do this.

Thank you
Navin

[roban]

Hi narendra_navin and welcome to the board.

Most carts come with payment gateways (Pay Pal, Authorize.Net and others) as well as shipping modifications and other configurable assets that enable you to set up a cart rapidly. Some carts are free such as Cube Cart version 3, OScommerce, Zen and Joomla VirtuMart to name just a few. Others can get rather pricey but you get what you pay for in most instances. Most carts are database driven and require Apache servers with php support but most hosting companies offer this and some even have internal scripts that will set up the cart for you including your database. Hosting companies that offer CPanel as their back end usually have a program called Fantastico that offers several different shopping carts and CMS systems that can be set up with a few clicks of your mouse.

For your payment gateway you would need an account. Pay Pal is free and good for the novice. Others require a credit history for accepting credit cards.

Some of the better (in my humble opinion) paid carts are CS-Cart, which I use, Miva and Volusion.

[ericsaante]

Roban, is correct, there are many solutions. I would suggest looking at OSCommerce. What type of products are you looking to sell? That will greatly drive the ecommerce solution that you choose.

[QuikShop]

Hi Roban,

I agree about taking a look at osCommerce, its free to use and very easy to get started with, although for a truly good looking shop you will need to customise it.

You can also consider hosted eCommerce solutions, who provide all you need to start selling online and typically charge a monthly or annual fee.

We operate predominantly in the UK market and provide our shop keepers with a web based user interface to manage the contents of their shops, process orders and so on. I'm sure there are many really good US solution providers out there to choose from that provide the same type of service.

[cometmall]

As i can see narendra_navin you are new to e-commerce...
if you want to use open source solutions (like oscommerce) you should have basic programming skills.
Otherwise use hosted solution or hire programmer

[rfresh]

An ecommerce package is only part of what you are going to need. To accept credit cards on your website you are going to need the following:

1. a merchant account. Do NOT sign up for a merchant account with your bank - they charge way too much. Do not use linkpoint central to manage your online CC transactions - their web interface is severely lacking in admin capabilities.
2. your website will need a dedicated IP address which is an extra cost item from your web hosting provider.
3. you will need to purchase and install an SSL Certificate.

[digitalgeek]

3.Is there a complete solution software package to do this.

Thank you
Navin

Hi Navin!
complete solution that I like is Intelex ecommerce

[veikoh]

Why not host where there is full set of templates available like www.completewebpages.com?
It did not take me more than a few days to setup 60 product shop there for my clients.