Point in the right way!

[tunnelvision]

Whats the basics that i will need to set up a online shop? Do i need a Merchant Account if so weres the best place to get one?
Any help will be great!

Cheers tv!

ps. i live in the UK

[kodaks]

You should start by getting a Paypal or likewise account. Do a site search for "paypal alternatives" if you prefer not to use PayPal.

[Morgenhund]

For the very beginning you should use a payment system that allow you to process CC without having your own merchant account. Some widely recognized examples are mypaysystems, 2checkout, or worldpay.

They accept payments on their merchant account and then wire transfer or check to you.

The main problems with them is that they rates are higher than having your own merchant account, and you are less in control of your own money. One of the main advantages -- simplicity of opening and use.

But if this is your very first shop, use PayPal.

Or you can even accept payments to a bank account by wire transfer (I do not know, how popular is it in the UK, but in Germany it is indeed very popular). Since the rates for inter-EU wire transfers are usually very small, it might be a point if yor target market is mainly EU.

[tunnelvision]

cheers for all the help!
i was thinkin would it be better to rent a dedicated server or get a web hosting package?
What are the pros and cons?

[JonR28]

Don't start dedicated because chances are you won't need that kind of bandwidth yet. Just do some virtual hosting with a dedicated IP. There are many hosting companies that will host for you for only $5-10 a month even with server-side scripting. Remember to choose a host with good ecommerce options for when you upgrade to a merchant account (i.e. SSL certs availible, SQL or other databases etc). When you reach $3,000 in sales a month I'd say it's about time to get a merchant account. Good luck!

[streetshirts]

ECommerce site pointers

Product
Supplier
Delivery Mechanism
Policies (privacy, terms and conditions etc)
Business stucture
Quality of service you will offer
Describe benefits and create site content

--Now think about site--
Merchant account/paypal
Shopping basket software
customer relationship management software
domain/hosting
other featurees

--Marketing--
real world
contacts
links links links (need content first)

you get the idea

[tunnelvision]

Merchant account/paypal

Will NOCHEX do instead of paypal?

[streetshirts]

Nochex is ok, couple of things:

You have to register as a buiness to use instant payments (where your customer doesn't sign up 3 days in advance)

The limit for instant payments is £90, anything over that users must register.

They never used to accept limited companies (don't know if they do now)

there are also other ones run by HSBC, Natwest etc. However these aren't that popular. Nochex is nowhere near as popular as Paypal, and as these services are a hassle to fully register on, I would recommend paypal as it hs the biggest number of users.

More users = more customers who don't have to register with a third party just to buy off you.

[Essex_boy]

Id say dont use PAypal as a main payment processor have the option to pay via a credit card service 2checkout.com

My sales went skyhigh when I switched.