Beginner's ecommerce question

Allright folks, this may be some stupid questions for this groups
sophistication level, but here goes. My wife and I are just getting into a
small/homebase business venture selling a limited product line. We want to
move into ecommerce as well, especially since there have been numerous
inquiries about a website and purchasing. I'm looking at several "store
site" web hosting possibilities (http://bizhosting.com and
http://www.builderspot.com) are the leading contenders.

Here the questions:

Has anyone had any dealings with either of these companies?
Does anyone have any info about low-cost merchant accounts?
Are there any options for taking orders on the internet that I've
overlooked?

Gee, not such simple questions after all. Thanks.

Derek

"dgadberry" <dgadberry1 DeleteThis @cox.net> wrote in message news:<UNILa.537398$vU3.397580@news1.central.cox.net>...
 > Allright folks, this may be some stupid questions for this groups
 > sophistication level, but here goes. My wife and I are just getting into a
 > small/homebase business venture selling a limited product line. We want to
 > move into ecommerce as well, especially since there have been numerous
 > inquiries about a website and purchasing. I'm looking at several "store
 > site" web hosting possibilities (http://bizhosting.com and
 > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.builderspot.com" target="_blank">http://www.builderspot.com</a>) are the leading contenders.

Both offer a proprietary hosted e-commerce solution - what that means
to you, is that you have no migration path in the event that things
don't work out with that particular company - ie, you can't just
download your store, and load it to another host.

I'd recommend staying AWAY from ANY proprietary hosted e-commerce
solution. Go with an open source, or paid solution.

Paid: Actinic catalog - low server requirements, works on any Perl/CGI
enabled host almost.
Open Source: OsCommerce - totally FREE solution - requires PHP and
MySQL, which are VERY easy to find.

We will install an oscommerce licence for you to tailor with our
business hosting packages . The install we use includes many third
party add-ons - such as, gift voucher purchase/redemption, discount
coupon management and redemption tools and more.
 >
 > Here the questions:
 >
 > Has anyone had any dealings with either of these companies?
 > Does anyone have any info about low-cost merchant accounts?

Call Cori at Humboldt Bank - let me know if you need the number.

Alternatively, using oscommerce, you can use something like
2checkout.com

 > Are there any options for taking orders on the internet that I've
 > overlooked?

There will always be something you overlooked!

 >
 > Gee, not such simple questions after all. Thanks.
 >
 > Derek<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->