I need some help getting my ecommerce website up and running

22 years old Entrepreneur in Tokyo, Japan

[ajeyez]

I am in the US Navy, with the chance of my lifetime to be living in Tokyo, Japan.
One thing if people are not aware of certain things about Japan, is that their is $ here. The common items that are purchased in the US are double to triple the price in Japan. So taking that information I have been trying to take the suppliers that I have gathered and trying to do something with my life. I started taking a lot of products to clubs all over Japan, and have taken the step level up and trying to start a GREAT WEBSITE offering to the Japanese economy. This is my first website ever creating, and have been doing it for 3 months now. I have some problems though; I have never used a shopping cart, merchant account, php, db...

Being that I live in ASIA (Japan), I have been told by a lot of Japanese people, that I the more languages my website is in, is better. Now I understand sometimes language converter companies can be expensive, but the major languages I will need help with is Chinese, European countries.
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Now currently I DO NOT HAVE A SHOPPING CART!
I would like to use the service of verisign, does anyone have any advice on that choice?
Can someone recommend a good shopping cart that can help me get off the ground......
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Also has anyone ever used on their website the recurring payment service, where customers can automatically be billed through their credit cards, their bill.
-DOES THIS SERVICE WORK WELL, OR ARE THERE FLAWS?

If anyone can give me any advice, I would really appreciate it..

[edited by: TallTroll at 7:17 pm (utc) on Nov. 21, 2003]
[edit reason] no sigs, no personal URLs please [/edit]

[Essex_boy]

Shopping carts I recommend OScommerce.com its powerful and very cheap - Nothing its free.

Never used verisign - can recommend World pay.com.

Good luck its harder than you think....

[ibiza]

Hey, if you ever need some help translating, email or pm me.

I lived in Japan for a year to study the Japanese language and teach english. I actually just got back a few months ago. My main goal now is to make enough money so that I can move back to Tokyo and live comfortably.

[ajeyez]

Essex, I appreciate your comments, I am researching OsCommerce right now, but let me ask you something.

I have already heard that (free) is not always the way to go. Nothing is ever (free) when your trying to start your own business.

I appreicate your recommendation.

As far as the good luck its not going to be easy, I already understand that.
I am willing to do whatever I got to do, to make this website successful!

Thanks again.....

[Essex_boy]

Yeah ok in some cases free is not the way to go but with OS its powerful and has a modern design theme, its also very easy to expand.

I spent £800 on a piece of ecom software (very famous) and it cant do a fraction of what OS can.

It wins hands down or me.