E-commerce, or electronic commerce, is a general term for any type of business, or commercial transaction that involves the transfer of information across the Internet.

What do I need to start an e-commerce site?

Product or service to sell.

Website. This can either be an existing website to which you can add e-commerce capabilities, or you can build the site from scratch.

Secure web server. A normal server is ok to host your website, but a secure server will be needed to process personal information and credit cards. If your ISP can't provide a secure server, the facility can be purchased elsewhere and your site can link to the secure site.

Shopping cart. Some work with databases, some don't. Some calculate exact shipping, many don't. Some are expandable with modules, most aren't. Some will run locally, some run from remote servers.

Payment gateway. This where you accept payment on-line for your services. This is the service that actually processes the credit cards and process checks on-line. The payment gateway has to be compatible with the shopping cart.

Merchant credit account. This usually comes with the payment gateway but you can get one at your local bank.

What will it cost?

As well as the cost of running the site, there is the additional cost of processing payments. If you intend to accept credit cards you will pay transaction fees to your bank and credit card-processing companies as well as fixed monthly fees. The transaction fees may cost you from 2-5% of the sale plus a fixed monthly maintenance fee.