I am an agent for multiple credit card processors, and most of my clients are e-commerce owners. I also ran my own e-commerce business for 7 years, selling shoes online. I currently process millions of dollars in sales every month for my clients, so I have experience in this area.
Don't spend a lot of money on a custom website! You can do that later if you're successful. There are plenty of inexpensive options available, especially if you're just getting started. (I have one client who will sell several million dollars worth of boats this Spring alone, all using a simple Yahoo store.) If you want to spend the money for a particular "look", go ahead, but pair it with an off-the-shelf shopping cart. (I have another client who insisted on hiring people to write a custom shopping cart. He got an expensive cart with few features and lots of bugs.) Any of the major carts should work for you, but here's a link where you can review some of the biggest:
http://www.shopping-cart-review.toptenrev
iews.com/.
Spend your money on inventory and spend your time writing good content for your site. You've probably already got someone in mind for your website
development, but if not, chech out www.kelseyads.com. On of their
employees is a friend of mine, and they've done good work for me in the
past. They design and manage the content for thousands of McDonalds
websites, so I'm sure they can handle the dynamic content of your
online car lot.
When you are ready to launch your website, please
visit me at www.CreekFinancial.com. There, you will get an instant, anonymous rate quote for your credit card
transactions. You won't have to provide an email address or phone number, so don't worry about unwanted contact. But feel free to call me with any questions about your website, shopping cart, or payment options. Best of luck to you in your new adventure!
Neil Moncrief
Creek Financial Services
