A:  The best way to answer this question is to go through a checklist of what you need to set up an
e-commerce website. There are five main parts that you will need to learn and incorporate in order to run your online store:

In order to sell your products online, you will need to have some form of shopping cart software. This software will help you organize your products, upload pictures, and generally set-up your online store.

There are a number of options for a shopping cart.  You can:

	use predesigned buttons or merchant solutions from payment companies such as Paypal.
	purchase one of the many shopping cart software solutions

 learn and use one of the shopping cart software programs      available to you in our Fantastico script installer. HostPapa      provides you with a number of shopping cart software      scripts that are easy-to-use and install like industry      leaders Zen Cart, OS Commerce, and CubeCart. You just      install these from the Fantastico button in your control      panel. It only takes a minute!

When you sign-up with HostPapa or any other shared hosting service, your website is put onto a server with a number of other websites. Each server has an Internet Protocol (IP) address which tells the world where that server is located, similar to your home address and postal/zip code. If you're running an online store, taking credit cards, or doing any sort of e-commerce, you cannot have a shared IP address. Having an IP address unique to your website is normally called a "dedicated IP address". This dedicated IP address is only used by your domain name and website, so you can provide your customers a secure connection with a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate.

HostPapa can provide your own dedicated IP address for your domain for a small monthly fee. Please contact HostPapa for details concerning your own dedicated IP address.

This is the lock and key system that you see in online stores. You know you are in a secure internet connection when you see the little lock on the bottom of your browser or when you are about to purchase products on the internet. That online store has put in an SSL certificate which essentially is a secured communication channel, encrypting the information over the internet so that information cannot be stolen or misused. This system provides a comfort level to your customers that their personal information such as credit card numbers are not at risk of being stolen. An SSL certificate also will change the browser from http:// to https://, indicating that the surfer is in a secure connection. If you are setting up an online store, you will require a dedicated (or shared) SSL certificate for your online store. Contact HostPapa for information and options of obtaining your SSL certificate.

This is how your transactions work between your online store and your merchant number. The payment gateway is a software program that communicates between your shopping cart and the payment processing system. Getting a payment gateway will allow you to take credit cards and other payment options online.

An easy option is to use Paypal which allows surfers to use credit cards or their Paypal funds to pay for your products. Furthermore, Paypal also provides you with a merchant account (see below). Other options for taking credit card payments are Authorize.net and Paynet. A solution for Canadians to take both $US and $CDN dollar transactions is PSIGate.

A merchant account allows a business to accept credit cards, debit cards, and other forms of electronic payment. This is also widely known as payment processing or credit card processing. The merchant account is the unique identifying number that tells VISA, M/C, AMEX, etc. that your store is performing the online transaction. If you already have a merchant account number from your bank, you can probably use that in your online store. The merchant account is not your payment gateway, however. You can also get a merchant account from Authorize.net, Paynet, etc., or if you are in Canada you can contact PSIGate or Global Payments who will help you obtain a merchant account. Please keep in mind that you will have to pay the credit cart transaction fees associated with your account, similar to what a store would pay for the usage of the merchant account. The easiest option is to signup with Paypal, where you can get a payment gateway, shopping cart buttons and merchant account all-in-one. Your users will also be able to use funds available in their Paypal account to pay for your products or services.

Happy selling!

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