abshaw

Here are the steps involved in setting up an online store that can accept credit cards and maintain an online inventory for you.

Step 1:
buy a domain name e.g myshoppingwizkid.com or medihazonline.com etc... you can purchase one at godaddy.com www.godaddy.com)

Step 2:
find a hosting service (a public server that will retain your inventory online for everyone to view). There are too many options there. some examples are as follows
ehostpros.com powweb.com hostgator.com godaddy.com

things to look for before making a decision on step 2
a. choose a Linux based server
b. look at the space allowed (in your case you would not need more than 25 MB space for a startup online store).
c. look for the bandwidth transfer allowed ( 1000 MB should be more than sufficient in your case.

Step 3:
Install your online store (Some people actually hire programmers and designers to do this and end up paying a lot of money for this step). The key word here is open-source for you, there are a lot of open-source e-stores available (free of cost) of the individual people to download and install some examples are
oscommerce.com zencart.com

and many more just google for "open source shopping carts" and the list will come jumping.

Step 4:
Your Inventory
once you have installed your shopping cart / online store, you have to input the inventory that you want to sell.

Step 5:
Your online financial gateway:
This is the the way you will charge people, in your case as a startup company the best way i would suggest is to go the paypal route. all you need is a valid email address to start accepting all major credit carts and ACH (payments from checks) payments.

a. make sure to goto paypal.com and signup with a valid email address.
b. make sure to add that email in the os-commerce or other shopping cart that you have (even if you forget, os commerce asks you this information as part of the installation).

Step 6:
Cha-Ching Time:
now keep checking you emails for orders that come your way and make sure to send me my commission check (just kidding).



thats it, you are all set and ready to go. If you have any troubles just email my naseeb id (which i check once every couple of months or send it to [email protected]) i will try to help as much as possible. Personally, i have installed os commerce for so many people that now it takes me about 30 minutes from start to finish to perform all the 6 steps :) enjoy the forture coming your way.


for everyone who thinks this information is worth some money (please donate its worth to a charitable cause, thank you.)

Fares_al_forsan

just join paypal.com or 2checkout.com

usmaniacal

Just use some readymade shoppingcart software. If your web host has cpanel it will be in there.