Shopping cart software advice
If you're going to have an online retail store you'll need some way for your customers to purchase what they want. So you'll need to have some sort of shopping cart software (assuming you don't open up a Yahoo Store, eBay Store, or ProStore - all of which include shopping cart software.
There used to be a day when a lot of sites would have their own shopping cart software created from scratch. Not so much anymore. Unless you're going to have a giant online store for which you require massive amounts of customization (and will also require that massive amounts of money be spent) an "off the shelf" shopping cart software will work just fine for you.
If you're going to get an off the shelf solution (and you should) there are two basic ways you are charged. Either a one time purchasing fee or an annual/monthly fee. You'll need to comparison shop different shopping cart software solutions to figure out which is best for you.
A lot of web hosts also offer free or value added shopping cart software as part of their hosting package. In fact, many of the online shopping carts that come with a hosting package also tie in directly with a merchant account which we are just now going to discuss.