Website/Web Hosting Account. In order for customers to view your product or service offerings or online catalog you will need to host the website/store on a web server. Many web hosting providers also offer ecommerce add-ons from open-source software programs to "Store-in-a-Box" solutions that allow you to build your own online catalog using pre-existing templates and a browser-based interface to build your product database. If your goal is to have ecommerce then shop for a web hosting provider that offers ecommerce solutions.

Merchant Account. As a business owner who will be taking customer payments over the Internet you must have a merchant account. This is a special type of bank account that allows you to accept payments made with credit cards. Merchant account administration provides authorization of credit cards that are presented to you (or your webstore) for payment, settlement of funds through the bankcard associations (MasterCard/Visa), depositing of funds to a checking account you specify, merchant billing, and account activity reporting. There are many, many merchant account providers out there now, some of them unscrupulously resorting to SPAM to try to reach potential business owners. It is in your best interest to shop carefully when selecting and applying for merchant account and not go with anybody who gets an e-mail to your Inbox or a flyer in your mailbox. We recommend going with an established, reputable merchant bank that has staying power and solid business practices.

Online Payment Gateway. The other piece of technology you must have to take orders online securely is a payment processing or gateway service. When someone comes to your website and orders a product or service and enters their billing and shipping information in your order form that information needs to be collected securely (encrypted) so that it can't be intercepted and stolen by watching and waiting hackers. Then the customer's credit card number, along with name and address need to be passed to a gateway that can de-crypt the information, validate and verify the credit card as not being fraudulent (or stolen) and then either; a) store the customer's order information WITH the payment information for later manual processing by you the merchant, or b) automatically charge the credit card for the total amount of the sale without you having to do anything. If you already have a merchant account and just need an online gateway service added to make your ecommerce solution complete.

Remember: Having a merchant account alone will not allow you take orders online automatically - the gateway is the essential piece that allows the merchant to accept credit cards (or echecks, or other forms of electronic payments) and have them validated and processed without you having to do so manually.  Something to look for when shopping for a service provider that offers online payments gateways is something called a 'virtual terminal'; this gives you a browser-based encrypted login screen where you can manually submit credit card authorizations and sales, issue refunds, and do batch processing. 

Money-saving tip: There are many service providers that will now offer a combination package that includes both a merchant account and an online gateway service. Look for one that will allow you to manually key in credit card purchases through a web browser for those orders that you take offline, in addition to automatically processing online orders placed through your website. Any reputable merchant banking provider will offer the merchant the capability of selecting HOW credit card numbers are to be processed once entered by the customer; authorize only, authorize and convert to sale, accept all credit cards and automatically convert to sales, process a refund/return, etc., etc. Be sure to select a merchant bank that offers you fraud protection and works with you closely to reduce online fraud. As a merchant you are liable for accepting fraudulent and stolen credit cards and can be put out of business or have your credit rating destroyed by repeated charge-backs!! 

Internet Access and E-mail Capability. In order to process your online orders you will need to have access to a computer that can get on the Internet for two reasons;

1) Most gateways will send you an e-mail notification when an order is placed through your website so you will need to regularly check your e-mail account for incoming orders.

2) You will likely have an adminstrative control panel for accessing your merchant account and you will need to go online through your web browser to finish processing authorize-only transactions that are pending, manually key in credit card numbers for orders taken offline, process refunds, run reports on account activity, download customer order details so you can fulfill the orders and many other account-related activities

What you need to sell online; the Software that makes it work ->