Are your E-commerce needs static or dynamic?

Code-described

Seperate web pages exist for each product usually with a picture, a description, and a price. Each time you want to change product information you modify the product's web page and upload it to the website. "Shopping Cart" functionality is a nice user-friendly feature and is included in ecommerce hosting plan, along with a transaction processing procedure.

These web sites can be FREE. By FREE I mean that there are no monthly hosting fees (which can otherwise range from $15 to $50 per month) and there seldom are development costs; easy to use point-and-click templates are often provided by the host. Some will allow you to create your own html pages, within guidelines of their hosting capability. However, operational costs are involved, such as per transaction fees and merchant account setup fees. Analyze your needs and available options to determine if the disadvantages of inflexibility and control outweigh the low cost of some of the static systems.

One of the easiest services to setup on your custom pages is PayPal's Website Payments, which allows your customers to use an embedded PayPal shopping cart, or your own, and accepts payments of major credit cards processed through your PayPal account.

Database

Product information is stored in a database and displayed dynamically per users requests. These services are never free - you must pay a monthly hosting fee and develop these sites professionally. You will need to work closely with your service provider to fit the available host resources (e.g., databases, server scripting, forms processing, shopping cart program, and secure transaction processing) to your needs.

At some level of need and cost, you will want to consider the professional E-commerce hosting solutions, available for businesses small to huge.