E-commerce Solutions

Here are some of the e-commerce solutions that I and my clients have used.

• PAYPAL - If a client does not have a merchant account with a bank - meaning they don't yet accept credit cards themselves, I recommend that they start with PAYPAL. If you accept credit cards, you know that all merchant accounts take a percentage of your sales. This percentage varies depending on how much business you do. It can range from 3%-5% give or take. Paypal will process payments for you, depositing them in your bank account, and like the merchant accounts, it takes a percentage of your revenue. So, although it is a FREE e-commerce solution, it does not save you the processing fees inherent in processing credit card sales. Paypal has great international currency support, so if you are setting up an e-commerce business which has a global clientele, Paypal is a good solution.
  
  Paypal also now offers merchant services - this means that they will process your credit card transactions behind the scenes - so that people don't realize they are paying through paypal. They tie in with most other shopping carts, like mals-e.com and marketerschoice.com.
  
  
  
• marketerschoice.com - The following cart is not free, but it offers a lot of great features: a comprehensive shopping cart, digital delivery, autoresponders, re-occuring billing, an affiliate module and much more . This is the shopping cart that I have ended up with after using both paypal and mals-e.com.
  
  
  
• Practice Pay Solutions - Practice Pay Solutions delivers personalized, convenient, and affordable credit card, electronic check, and e-commerce processing solutions. They are the credit card merchant that I use now.
  
  
• Mals-e.com - If you already accept credit cards, mals-e.com has a free shopping cart that is absolutely fantastic. It is highly customizable to match your site, and very easy to set up. Mals also has a premium version of their cart which is very affordably priced, that will tie into most credit card processing gateways.

  I used mals-e shopping cart on the following sites:

  http://babystuffgifts.com
  http://lesliefreeman.com
  http://aggiehill.com
  http://theblissfactory.com
  http://bunchofgrapes.com
  http://shopsanctuary.com
  http://mvlandscapes.com
  http://kellypetersdance.com (hip hop video page)