Need advice on ecommerce website

Hello,

I'm going to start selling online and have been researching the
differenct facets of an ecommerce website... there are so many options
for credit card processing and site development that my head is
starting to spin. If anyone can offer their experiences and recommend
some good, affordable solutions I would much appreciate it.

Here's some detail on my business/site...

Products
I will only have about 10 products to list... some of them are custom
and will require that the customer upload a file during the purchase
process. Will probably only be getting a few orders per day.

Payment/Order Processing
I would like to accept credit cards but do not want the user to have to
go off the site or create a login... I'd like to make the process as
simple as possible. I've played around with Frontpage forms and am
able to get order information submitted into a database in a secure
place on my site as well as e-mailed to me. I'd use SSL for the
transaction, but don't feel comfortable with the credit card info
sitting in the database unecrypted even if it's in a secure area.
Also, I am using Quickbooks 2005 and would like to integrate it into
the order process if possible. Not that a big of a deal if I have to
manually enter data or do an import though.

Once again, any advice on any of this would much appreciated.
Thanks!
-Dave

First - keep in mind that you cannot have the CC numbers emailed to
you. That is not secure. And even though you might be using SSL -
that is only for the connectivity between your site & the client's
browser. Once the browser is closed, so is the SSL. So the database
would not necessarily be secured.

You need to get a merchant account with an electronic payment gateway
(Linkpoint, Verisign's Payflow, Authorizenet.com). LinkPoint is the
largest in the United States being resold by Chase, Cardservice, PNC,
as well as a few others. The gateway will communicate with the
transaction processor and you never have to store the CC number or
anything. The merchant account will move your money into your bank
account usually 24-48 hours after the sale. Depending on your needs,
location, and your client base, you might consider adding Paypal in
conjunction with a merchant account. If you are in the United States /
Canada, expect to be doing around $1,000 or more a month, get a
merchant account. Otherwise consider a third party option - like 2CO
and Paypal.

There are some carts that will support exporting to a Quickbooks file
actually. Check with your hosting company to see what they might
support as far as shopping carts, etc

-Corey