E-Commerce requires several steps due to the security of the system.
1. Shopping Cart Software to power interaction with your products.
2. A Payment Gateway and Merchant Account - This will be the interface between the web and your company bank account. We suggest Athorize.net and PayAmerica as the most cost effective and popular system. They will charge you $30 a month plus 1.9 % of your transactions plus .30 per transaction.
3. A SSL Security Certificate and Deticated IP Address - You will need this to ensure a secure and ecrypted connection in order to accept credit cards. The "SSL" certificate costs around $45 per year through your hosting and the Deticated IP will cost around $30 per year and is also purchased through your hosting.
You can also choose to over PayPal buttons and Google Checkout on your site with no monthy or yearly fees attached. You only pay a per transaction fee.