Selling Items Online

[Tobin83]

I am trying to build a website that is able to sell merchandise online. I was wondering how to do this, and if to take credit card numbers would I need anything special?

If I am selling merchandise online I have heard of PayPal. Would anyone else go with this, or what other alternatives are there in advance?

thank you in advance...tobin

[minnapple]

To accept credit cards you will need a mechant account.
It costs around $250.00 to apply for one, an if accepted it costs a min of about $25.00/month depending how many card types you want to accept, plus a percent of sales and some small processing fees.

[Corey Bryant]

It depends on your location and your volume. Usually the merchant account application is free and then you might have a set-up fee for the electronic payment gateway. The monthly fees for the gateway can vary from around $15-$75 a month and some gateways will charge you a transaction fee as well.

Usually a monthy charge from the merchant account provider (MAP) is about $10-$20. This fee could be called a statement fee or it could be called a service fee.

-Corey

[cybert]

You need:

1. A website
2. Merchant accounts for VISA, M/C, Amex, Discover
3. Transaction processor account i.e., AuthorizeNet, Cybercash et al.
4. A robust shopping cart attached to your website, i.e. Cart32.com (can rent for $25.00/month)
5. Marketing strategy.
6. Distributors that will give you bottom-line pricing.

[ska_demon]

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit.

If you have a limited number of items to sell that wouldn't require a complex shopping cart or catalogue, what is wrong with using PayPal merchant tools? As far as I can see it's cheap, accept all major cards, easy to set up, accept bank transfers etc. I am only seeing the plus sides.

In your opinions what, if any, are the bad sides to using PP?

Ska

[cybert]

Ska_demon,

Please visit www.#*$!.com and read some of the threads there. This will give you some insight into PP.

[ska_demon]

Can you sticky me the URL cybert?

Thanks

Ska

<edit>don't worry, I found it ;o/ </edit>

[joe1182]

If you have a lot of items to sell I would download zencart or OsCommerce. Both of these are great free software to run your store with. You can also integrate your credit card authorization very easily. If you go to authorize.net and view their reseller directory you can find several resellers that will not charge you an annual fee and have pretty good rates. Make sure you read all of the fine print before making any commitments (been burned on that one).