Online stores usually use shopping cart to take in orders. So, if you want to start your own online store, you will need a shopping cart installed into your store so people can easily order items from you store. It might sound easy, adding in a shopping cart, but there are other things that you need for your online store such as a merchant account. A merchant account might sound complicated but it is needed with every online store so that you can accept credit cards and payments from the customers who purchase items from your store through your online store. With a merchant account, you need to hook it up with your shopping cart properly without any errors so that the payments from the customer can be received properly. When you finish hooking the two together, you should test it out prior to opening your online store so there are no problems.