From all the research I've done mostly at this forum to get all the ecommerce elements figured out (I must say it's pretty confusing), I'm considering doing the following but if anyone sees a potential problem, I would appreciate the feedback. The goal is for these elements to interface well, to be reasonably priced but with the potential to upgrade once the business starts to make some money.
Domain- got from godaddy
host - hostgator
shopping cart - cube cart
pay pal - payment processor
Second part of the questions - how do I integrate Fed Ex to the website?
sounds like a pretty good plan. I am in canada so can't answer the fedex Q, but just wanted to say you might want to also check/consider (if you have not already) zencart as well.
Sounds OK, I use godaddy for .com domains, I have used hostgator in the past for about 12 months, they were pretty good in terms of pricing and uptime, a little hard for support.
Cube Cart / Zen Cart / OSCommerce (my fav) are all good products not without thier certain limitations and quirks.
When you say FedEx, what do you mean? do you want your site to do live shipping quotes for your customers?
It's generally good to buy your domain and hosting at different places so if there is a problem with your hosting they can't hold your domain hostage and vice versa. It's been known to happen over billing disputes.
Considering hostgator, cube cart and pay pal 
