Web Development

I would suggest that if you do not know much about server side programming and general web site development, you should hire a more experienced developer to create your e-commerce site for you. Perhaps you can find someone who would be willing to walk you through the development process so you can tackle the task on your own next time.

The problem is that you're talking about doing business on the web, and the cheapest solution is not going to be the best solution. You need to provide yourclients with secure transactions and be able to realistically assure them that their data will be secure with you. You need to protect yourself against fraud. You need to provide a high-performing system so you don't drive customers away due to slow-loading, difficult to use pages.

At the very least I would suggest that you take the development process slow. Look at existing open-source e-commerce systems (sourceforge is a great place to start looking). Learn how they work. Implement them in a development environment and learn, learn, learn.

Good luck with your site.

Jay
www.jayeckles.com

First, you need a merchant account and e-payment gateway. You would buy these services from your bank or from a site like www.cardservice.com.
The merchant account is what every store has, a card swipe and terminal that let's you process credit cards. The e-payment gateway lets you process cards over the Internet through a "virtual terminal". Once you have these things
you need some sort of web based software solution that integrates that all together into something that you can plug into a web site. The attraction of sites like PayPal or yahoo stores to the average person is that they simplify this process. The limitiation is usually that you have little control over the way your store looks because you have to use their canned templates or limited toolsets. Sites like www.storesontheweb.com and www.storekit.com allow you to actually integrate your web catalog and shopping cart functions directly into your web pages and still manage your products and sales online via a browser. Although you now have total freedom to design and integrate functionality into your pages as you see fit. You also in turn have to have a solid understanding of web design and coding pages or in the case of storekit.com Flash programming. Coldfusion is also great for building online stores.

Hope that helps...email me if I can answer any more questions.

Cybtribe