Just trying to get my head around the steps involved in creating a website to sell items.

This is what I think you need:
>> a website
>> a shopping cart app (which one?)
>> a secure connection to handle the payment?

Who receives the payment information? Does it go to the bank who then 'send' the vendor the money?

Any input to fill in the blanks would be great.

Thanks.

Start by selling with paypal... they handle all the transactions for you but charge you a bigger fee than traditional gateways.

If you find out you can make a lot of money out of your website and that you can cover your fees then invest into a gateway processor:
http://www.authorize.net

Then profit.

Good luck

Thanks.

Its not for me per se, its just so I can understand how the process can work.

If you are selling your own goods, zencart or oscommerce is good. As for payment processor if you are new use PayPal or Google Checkout (pp is much more available)

Both of the software I mentioned have easy integration to paypal.

Originally Posted by Joe3000

Just trying to get my head around the steps involved in creating a website to sell items.

This is what I think you need:
>> a website
>> a shopping cart app (which one?)
>> a secure connection to handle the payment?

Who receives the payment information? Does it go to the bank who then 'send' the vendor the money?

Any input to fill in the blanks would be great.

Thanks.

Very simply...

A web site to display your products and associated information
A method of letting customers select items for purchase (cart)
A method of collecting customer data, delivery address etc
A method of payment - either a 3rd party payment processor like Woldpay, Secpay, Protx, Paypal, or offline using your own POS (SSL required)
A method of logging order information

Broadly speaking, a 3rd party payment processor will do the transaction for you and deposit the money into your bank account, all you do is collect the order info and despatch it when you have confirmation that the payment has been successful.

As to which shopping cart system to use that depends on what features you actually need and what's important. What platform are you using - php, asp, perl? Do you need things like categories, additional product info fields, customer accounts, wholesale facilities, easy to edit html/css templates? What is your budget?

Make a list of everything you'd need, both now and in the future. Once you have that list you can then go and see which carts fit your requirements. My advice is not to jump in and go for "everyones" favourite free shopping cart - what suits them might not be suitable for your business. Choosing the right cart first time will save a lot of hassle later on.

Thanks, very useful.