To sell physical products most merchants opt to setup an online store website complete with product catalogue management, shopping cart, and checkout facilities. This suits businesses with large product catalogues complete with product images, descriptions and stock levels.

But small businesses can also sell online by using a much less involved setup. Here is a list of some of your options for selling online

• Setup an online store website with merchant account
  A merchant account can be obtained by applying to a bank or financial institution. There are account and transaction fees involved. The transaction fees are typically small when compared to third party payment options. Using a merchant account will still require the user of a payment processor to handle the flow of payments.
• Setup an online store website with third party payment processor
  Third party payment processors such as PayPal and Paymate Express offer a way for the public to access payment authorisation facilities without the need to setup a merchant account. This suits small business and start up operations as it is one less ongoing expense. However the transaction fees are typically higher than for a merchant account.
  
• Use a third party store website, eg Ebay, Google Checkout