ecommerce-idiots guide

[tenaki]

Hi

I have found other areas of this forum very handy in the past so he goes on my e-commerce question.

I have some services/products I want to sell.

I want to able to accept online credit cards

I have a very very small budget

I don't have a merchant account

I do have my own website

I am based in the UK

So I think I need someone to provide the ecommerce site and merchant account?

Ideally I need to keep the initial set up as low as possible but accept that I probably need to pay the ecommerce site a percentage of each payment made, a bit like Paypal.

Thinking about it I probably need some kind of "turnkey solution"


Now is this possible and where should I go, any ideas please

[MichelH]

Yes, this is possible.

For U.K. based businesses, I would recommend WorldPay, MultiCards or Metacharge.

All three can also set you up with a direct merchant account with their acquiring bank, which means you will get your own descriptor. This usually takes about 4-6 weeks for set up.

[cyanide]

I think more information is needed in order to assess your situation.
What kind of products/services?
How many products/serivces?
How does customer receive? shipped/downloaded?
Price points ?

I understand working around a budget, just keep in mind you get what you pay for.

[ADAM Web Design]

Originally Posted by cyanide

I understand working around a budget, just keep in mind you get what you pay for.

Multiply this by a factor of 10 when it comes to anything related to web design. If you go cheap, it will cost you a lot more than if you spent money on something good.

tenaki: e-commerce "turnkey" (GOD, I hate that word...so corporate!) solutions tend not to work as well as those that are customized for the simple reason that customized solutions reflect the business they're built for, whereas "turnkey" solutions reflect business in a more broad and general sense and may not be for you.

What is your site, by the way? I think it would help those who want to help you (e.g. cyanide and myself) a lot more if we could see what it was you were trying to offer and what you need to do to get where you want to go.