All, I own a small flowershop and want to start selling items online. I have some experience with building a website but nothing on the e-commerce side of things.

I was wondering, what are all the various things that i will need to set up to be able to sell my items online. so far i have been told about:
- a store front(this is the webpage part i guess)
- a merchant account, for credit cards
- a database, to store the items

Since this is a hosting fourm, are there any hosting companies out there that has already incorporated all the required things i have been hearing about above??? is there more to it than whats listed. are there any packaged deals out here

I know this is alot to ask for my first post but could really really use some direction on this. any sites, books or company references would be a big help.

thanks,
Dread

It may not be cheap, but Homestead offers site builders (bad word for some), and ecommerce using PayPal.

Have you ever thought of opening an eBay store? You might want to check what they offer, too.

Dave

and ecommerce using PayPal.



Dave [/B]

Best way to go right there

There are quite a few companies who will practically do everything for you. Although quite expensive, Actinic (http://www.actinic.us/) do very good software for this. Basically, you use a Windows based program to set up your products/categories etc. They provide details of hosts you can sign up to, and then you just click the publish button to get the store online. Credit card processing can either be done with your current processor, or you can sign up with an online system (such as WorldPay or 2Checkout).

I think Yahoo also do an online shopping system, where you just set up a template and everything is done for you.

I wouldn't suggest PayPal, though. Although they are decent (especially for small businesses), 2Checkout only costs $50 setup, and their fees are lower and their systems more professional. Certainly worth a look.

Hello there,

If you pay for hosting, most hosts that are on cPanel have e-commence ready to be installed. If you need hosting, let me know.

Online stores are quite a difficult thing to do "CORRECTLY". You want to create a pressence online that not only looks professional but makes people feel confident when they send u their visa cards.. A lotta companies out there help you with secure transfer, I think http://www.verisign.com/ might be a good start? I dont know how much they charge tho.. as ozzie said pay pal is an easy way to create a online store, in my experience tho sales arent as good with paypal for some reason or another and they takea small cut i think its 2.7%.. I know of a few different scripts that are really good and fully customizable but are a bit more complex and also require u buy the licensing fee which is 200-300 bucks.. But in the long run it would be better to do it professionally and right then do get off doing it half assed.. if you have a budget for these kind of scripts I might be be able to set one up for you.. for more information visit my website, and e-mail if =) Have fun and good luck with your business, hope this helped..

-Nat Marcano