E-Commerce Information Two Kinds of E-Commerce Web Sites: Your Own Merchant Account: In order to sell items or services directly from your web site and offer payment options to your customers, you will want to enable your web site to accept credit card or debit card payments. This is called activating a "Full E-Commerce" web site. In order to accept credit cards and other kinds of instant payment on your web site, you will need to set up your own Merchant Account. A Merchant Account is necessary and is set up through a bank or financial institution. You will also need to install Shopping Cart software on your web site and provide Virtual Terminal access. We at Lightning Web Designs & Hosting can make it easy for you to obtain your own Merchant Account, have a Shopping Cart and a Virtual Terminal, all in one cost-effective package, which includes hosting for around $59.95/mo. plus a per transaction charge. You will find detailed information about this option at http://lightningw.evsholdingco.com/. An Alternative to Having Your Own Merchant Account: If you are a new business just starting up with your own web site, you may feel that it's too much of an expense to obtain and manage your own Merchant Account. A good alternative to a Merchant Account is to use what is called a "third party" processing company. Pay Pal is one of the best. There is no monthly fee to use Pay Pal and the only fees that are charged is a small percentage of the total sale, whenever you have a sale. Using this method will save you from needing to pay mothly charges to the bank plus per transaction charges. Pay Pal has "Buy Now" buttons, a Shopping Cart and it will even manage Subscriptions, Donations and Auction sales. It also has shipping and tracking tools. We at Lightning Web Designs & Hosting recommend Pay Pal as an alternative to getting your own Merchant Account. Just go to https://www.paypal.com/affil/pal=S7M4EKNU22236 to see full information and sign up. With either choice, Lightning Web Designs & Hosting will be happy to make your transition to a full e-commerce web site a pleasant one. Home | Web Hosting Info | Domain Name Lookup | Web Hosting Features | Order Hosting | E-Commerce Info | Web Design Info | FAQ | Usage Policy | Control Panel Instructions | Help