How do I accept payments on my website? Part 2

In my last post, I mused about finding a simple way to accept payments on a website. That is a nebulous statement, and it is as fuzzy as any nebulous cloud could be. Coincidentally one of my friends (not sure if this merchant is actually a friend. Let’s say that’s it) came up to run along on this experiment.

So last Saturday, I locked myself up to decide on what I really want to do. I came up with this chicken list:

  1. This is a fashion website. To sell some pieces of pretty rags to anyone willing to part with cash before seeing the merchandize (merchandize are things merchants sell)
  2. The website must be able to accept all payment cards irrespective of country of issue. If this is not possible, at least we must accept Nigerian plastics.
  3. No additional registration would be required upfront. Just select goods, fish out card, input details, and bingo, goods show up at the door.
  4. The whole shebang shouldn’t cost ten arms and 5 legs.
  5. Must be easy to set up (No Ph.D. in hair-pulling) and to support

Upfront, I have decided to use Magento. Magento is an open-source (read free!) shopping engine that can be easily deployed. Well, that is what another friend who’s used it said. In this business, it is important to ask around sometimes. You can learn shiploads against trial by error.

Magento can be easily hosted, or I can use Magento Go, a simple hosted solution that I can pay per month. I haven’t decided on which to use. While Magento Go is tempting about the ease of deployment, what I need to confirm is if I would be able to muck around the codes for the integration I want to do.

That is another thought for next weekend.