What do I need to consider when setting up and online store?

There are four main parts to an online store:

• Web Hosting - If you are going to sell online, you need to host your site on a server somewhere. This is where all your web pages live.

• Shopping Cart - To allow anyone to purchase, you will need to have a shopping cart system. This can be software that you install on server or a service you purchase from someone. It will track what people have ordered from your site and then collect all their shipping and billing information in a secure way.

• Merchant Account - Once you have collected all credit card information, you will need a merchant account to process the transaction. They collect the money and then pay you after subtracting their fees as well as all the credit card transaction fees.

• Advertising - If you just set up a online store, it's it very unlikely that anyone is going to find it on the web. There are billions of web pages. The only way you are going to get people to your online store is to advertise. This can be done in many ways.

You do not need to set up all these four parts with separate companies. In many cases you can do the online hosting and the shopping cart with the same company. The merchant accounts are always separate from everything else you do on the web. Even if it looks like a company is offering a full-service, one-stop-shop for your online store, you will most likely have to still set up a merchant account in addition to the other services.