# To start online store for T-shirts



## barryfleener (Jul 21, 2016)

I am planning to develop a shopping cart website for my T-shirt shop. When I started researching about this, I came to know about the term merchant account. Also, I found some merchant account providers in Canada (About MerchACT | Online Business Merchant Account Providers). How it differs from normal bank accounts. Is it necessary to have a merchant account to start a shopping cart website? Are there any additional charges for these accounts apart from processing charges? Please help me with some tips to start an online store for my T-shirt shop.


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## Stefano (Aug 5, 2013)

barryfleener said:


> I am planning to develop a shopping cart website for my T-shirt shop. When I started researching about this, I came to know about the term merchant account. Also, I found some merchant account providers in Canada (About MerchACT | Online Business Merchant Account Providers). How it differs from normal bank accounts. Is it necessary to have a merchant account to start a shopping cart website? Are there any additional charges for these accounts apart from processing charges? Please help me with some tips to start an online store for my T-shirt shop.


My comments pertain to a U.S. based business, so there will be differences between us and Canada.
I looked at many options, thenset up a store on Volusion for a basic charge of about $18/mo. That includes a storefront, template to display the products, a shopping cart, etc. 

Next you need a "Merchant Gateway", which I believe you were talking about. These services (Authorize.net, Stripe, PayPal, etc.) process your transactions with MC, Visa, etc. and dump the money into a bank account. Many of these Gateways require that you have a business bank account connected. PayPal will store your money in your PayPal account but you still need another account. There's a basic charge of about $40/mo, more or less. Plus, all charge 2%-3% per transaction in addition to the basic monthly charge. Plus some charge you a minimum of $25/mo minimum transaction fee whether you process any sales or not. Yeah, that sucks.

Also, most web hosts and e-commerce stores require you purchase an SSL certificate ($65 or so per year) to provide security for your customer's transactions. These costs all add up. Plus, there are plenty of companies that will build your site for $5000 to the sky is the limit. That's why I suggest Volusion, Shopify, etc.

A new option is Face Book's storefront, shopping cart, PayPal gateway, etc. for about $25/mo. You can sign up month by month, for 3 mo, 6, etc.It would be worth looking in to. 

Good luck.


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## tfalk (Apr 3, 2008)

Are you going to setup the shopping cart or are you going to pay someone to set it up and maintain it?

You can get basic website hosting plans for less than $10/month. There are many shopping cart systems out there that are free if you set them up and maintain them yourself, I'm using opencart as one example.

If you don't have any real volume to start with, why spend $25+/month for a merchant account? Most of the shopping cart systems will work with paypal which there is no monthly charge but the per transaction fees are slightly higher than those of a 'real' merchant account. It's an economical way to start and you can always set up a merchant account later on...


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## into the T (Aug 22, 2015)

i agree with tftalk

use your own (woocommerce, opencart, etc.) with paypal,
then if needed add a merchant account

paypal has a guest checkout option so customers do not have to be members

i had a site that reviewed these sorts of things, i will see if i can find it again

edit to add: found it
merchant maverick

check out beanstream for canada, as they don't have a monthly fee
(i think stripe is also without monthly fees, but is us based and gets a lower review)


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## RebelSwan (Oct 30, 2013)

Square offered a Canadian storefront this winter (was only available in the U.S. for the longest time). I really need to look into it. https://squareup.com/ca/ecommerce  I can't imagine it would be very appropriate if you have a huge inventory - and multiple sizes/colours - but starting out the price is great - FREE, just ordinary processing fees.

I use a square reader onsite and when I take phone orders and have been very pleased with it. You set your cut-off time and the the day's receipts are sent to my bank the next business day, or accrued over a weekend. WAAAYYYY faster than receiving a payment from Paypal. I emailed Square once, they replied the same morning. I asked for a new reader and it arrived in 48 hrs.


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## sksalma1133 (Sep 29, 2016)

barryfleener said:


> I am planning to develop a shopping cart website for my T-shirt shop. When I started researching about this, I came to know about the term merchant account. Also, I found some merchant account providers in Canada (About MerchACT | Online Business Merchant Account Providers). How it differs from normal bank accounts. Is it necessary to have a merchant account to start a shopping cart website? Are there any additional charges for these accounts apart from processing charges? Please help me with some tips to start an online store for my T-shirt shop.


https://teespring.com/love-heart-printed-long-sleeve#pid=288&cid=6101&sid=front


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## aldorabancroft (Nov 18, 2014)

barryfleener said:


> I am planning to develop a shopping cart website for my T-shirt shop. When I started researching about this, I came to know about the term merchant account. Also, I found some merchant account providers in Canada (About MerchACT | Online Business Merchant Account Providers). How it differs from normal bank accounts. Is it necessary to have a merchant account to start a shopping cart website? Are there any additional charges for these accounts apart from processing charges? Please help me with some tips to start an online store for my T-shirt shop.



Why you wan to give your earned money to someone? Spend some money to make your own and then you don't want to spend more behind it.


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## dsiguin (Feb 7, 2017)

You can advertise your T-shirts for free! Pin Custom Tees | Organize and share the tees you like


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## ralbert (Apr 10, 2016)

we use a shopping cart program for processing payment.


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## brushyourideas (Oct 18, 2016)

Hello,

I totally agree with @tfalk comment. You are already investing money in shopping cart and website development. Why should you pay more for little efforts of merchant account providers as web to print already available in market which will help you to create your brand new store with shopping cart in pocket friendly rate. 

Hope this helps.


http://www.t-shirtforums.com/members/tfalk.html


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## johnypeter (Jun 13, 2016)

Really a great tip to start selling your T-shirts for your online business


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