E-Commerce, so I need this & that right?

Hi:

I really didn't think this would be so confusing. Can you verify my checklist of what I think I need?

1. Shopping Cart
2. Payment Gateway
3. Merchant Account
4. SSL Certificate

A. What else do I need here? What don't I need here?

B. I have a free shopping cart, Zen Cart. I know I could use trustcommerce.com or authorize.net, but where do I get *just* the merchant account.

C. Most of the sites seem to offer only partial deals. Maybe a gateway & processing and a cart. So the processing and gateway fees are payed monthly? Do you have to pay for the merchant account monthly *as well*?

D. If I wanted to ditch the 'do-it-all-yourself' method, is 2checkout.com, worldpay.com & paysystems.com the only choices I have? User reviews don't bode too well for any of them. Is it true they don't have fully customizable interfaces?

E. Is there not one bloody service provider who covers the whole process?

I'm really stressing questions A, B, C and D.

Thanks for any help whatsoever.

M

Hard to find straight answers, huh.

You pretty much have all the steps. Here is what I did with some optional variations... maybe this will help put things together

First I got a host that had good 24/7 support.

Then, I went through Payquake.com (reseller) for my merchant account & my payment gateway(they set you up with both at the same time). Their rates are really flexible and accomodate tiny startup companies. There is a yearly fee, a % of sales per transaction fee and a flat fee per transaction. No other fees... period. These rates vary per the plan you choose. Sign up online and they will send you additional sign-up forms in the mail. They use Authorize.net for their gateway. Once your account is created (this includes your merchant AND gateway) the resulting gateway account information should be entered into your shopping cart so that it knows how to process sales.

I recommend only dealing with companies that have a phone #. Whether it's a host or a merchant account reseller, call and get them to lay everything out in plain english(or whatever your language of preference is)

Usually, the more the cart/storefront holds your hand during the development process the less control you will have over the finished product... unless you have applicable development skills. It's a matter of degree on how much you will have to compromise from cart product to cart product. Personally I want a unified front. I don't want a all in one product dictating the look and feel of my site. And I definately don't want the domain changing from "mysitename.com" when a customer accesses their cart or purchases a product.

I built my own shopping cart. This doesn't sound like an option for you. So, I recommend that you get a webhost that has a storefront/shopping cart software package. This way you don't have to install one if your not up to it.

Miva Merchant is a well known product. It's not as customizable as other carts out there (that are built on open source) but it's complete and it will hold your hand through the site building process. I've seen it advertized by webhosts (jumpline.com for instance) for a $100 one time flat fee (plus your monthly hosting fee of course).

However, Zen Cart looks like it is well supported (I honestly don't know too much about it). Depending on your technical skill and desired level of customization it may be a snap to customize or it may be a bit frustrating. It all depends on how picky you are about the way your site looks and performs.

I think I will be using X-cart for my next store. It seems professionally put together, there are plenty of available add on modules from third party vendors, it uses Smarty templates so its look is completely customizable, and it's open source (PHP) so it's functionality can be tweaked. But you don't have to know PHP to use X-cart... the basics are GUI based.

Finally, purchase an SSL certificate. I went through GeoTrust. http://ev1servers.net/english/quickssldetails.asp They were a fraction of the price of other big name certificates and I haven't had any problems with them as of yet. The process of buying and installing one of these can be a bit confusing. This is why a host that is ocasionally willing to go beyond it's typical support responsibilities is important.

E. Good question. With all the vague and confusing info out there you will probably just have to slog through it to answer
that question.

So... 1.) get a host with good support and an extensive "control panel" to manage your site (jumpline.com is a good example). 2.) Based on your technical skills and desired amount of customization pick a cart and install it. Make sure it is compatible with your hosts technology. If you want to take the easy path, pick a host that has a big name cart like Miva. 3.) Contact payquake.com (highly recommended) or an equivalent gateway+merchant account reseller. Talk to their a sales person on the phone and have them answer *all* of your questions. Or an easier but probably more expensive alternative... pick a web host that resells merchant/gateway accounts 4.) Once your gateway/merchant account is "activated" and you have set up your cart/site, purchase your SSL certificate (Geotrust recommended) and follow their instructions (or your hosts instructions) to install the certificate on the servers. If you have problems call your hosts support line. If you want to take the easy route purchase the certificate from your host (if they offer one). It will probably be more expensive but they can hold your hand through the installation process. 5.) Enter your gateway info into your shopping cart. 6.) Make dollas!