Note: This post was written for participants in an ecommerce seminar. Please feel free to leave questions + comments below
To sell items online, you need:
a payment gateway (like paypal) to process payments
a good shopping cart solution
an SSL seal (if you’re processing credit cards on your website)
If you’re starting from scratch, don’t have the support of a developer, or just want an online store, consider Shopify. They have beautiful templates, and can help your online store get up and running quickly. Review pricing and take a tour of what
Shopify offers. They’re great!
Below is a “short” list of payment gateways and shopping cart solutions.
PAYMENT GATEWAYS
A payment gateway processes the payment for you. Paypal is by far the most popular payment gateways. Here is a list of other payment gateways.
Paypal
The current leader in processing sales online. They have a great list of resources for shopping carts here.
Google Checkout
Take a look at their merchant center – it’s chock full of resources
ejunkie
A fantastic solution, starts at $5/month. Take a look at their pricing)
Authorize.net
If you want to process credit cards with your own bank, authorize.net is the way to go. Fees usually start at $20/month. You will need to purchase an SSL seal to use Authorize.net.
ONLINE INVOICING
Use Freshbooks. Get a free account on Freshbooks.
SHOPPING CARTS
NOTE: If you’re running your website with WordPress, use WP-ecommerce. If you’re running your website with Drupal, use Ubercart. Otherwise, there are these other solid solutions.