18 Dec 2000, India

Hi Dr. Ecommerce,

I need your assistance for enabling my web site for e-commerce. I have already completed my site. Now I want to add e-commerce to it . I don't have any merchant account, for that what do I need to do?. What are the necessary steps to set one up? Is there any kind of 'Dummy Merchant Account' that I can use to test my site? What are the neccessary steps required to enable ecommerce?

Regards

Saurav

 

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Dear Saurav:

You need to explain what you mean by enable your site for e-commerce. If you want to sell products or services via your web site, you will need:

1. a web site
2. content on your web site, ideally this should be related to your product
3. a means of taking customer orders - most often this is using "shopping cart" or "shopping basket" software because it allows customers to collect products before proceeding to check-out where they pay for the product
4. A means of collecting payment from your customers. Most likely, this will be via credit card if you are selling to consumers. See www.drecommerce.com/answers/000019.html for more information.
5. A secure system that allows you to collect credit card information safely
6. A fulfilment system for sending orders to your customers.

You will need to check with your bank about a "dummy merchant account". But the real issue is testing your shopping cart and payment software. This can be done without ever sending a credit card payment to the bank. Hence, you will probably never need a dummy account.

For information of shopping cart systems and other alternatives, check out the reviews at ZDnet and ask your Internet service provider for advice.

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce