im thinking of using cubecart as my platform for ecommerce. Just to get this right, I then need some kind of merchant account to accept credit card payments and a SSL certificate? ANythingy else needed?
Also, I have hosting with 1and1, would it be easier to just use their ecommerce platform or go with the cubecart?
. Just to get this right, I then need some kind of merchant account to accept credit card payments and a SSL certificate?
That's what you need to accept payments.
If you didn't want to accept credit cards at first, you could just accept PayPal and then you wouldn't need a merchant account or an SSL certificate. However, shoppers would have to navigate away from your store at checkout to pay at PayPal and then get redirected back to your store.
You would also need a webhost that meets the cubecart minimum requirements.
Quote:
Also, I have hosting with 1and1, would it be easier to just use their ecommerce platform or go with the cubecart?
I haven't seen 1and1's ecommerce platform. But if it's free to you, you could try it out and see if you like it.
I don't like some of 1 + 1 practices; have had much difficulty with them when trying to change from one of their packages to another (downgrading, of course). You should ask about the process you have to go through to switch hosts, packages, etc. and any other changes you might want to make with them. I have found it very, very difficult to make simple changes because they lock out the options and you have to receive "permissions" by email which I find to be completely ridiculous. I believe managing one's account should be straight forward and from the administrator panel, not with permission from their support department.
Ecommerce intergration 
