" We want consumers to say, 'That's a hell of a product' instead of, 'That's a hell of an ad' "  

Leo Burnett,
quoted in 100: LEO's, Chicago, IL : Leo Burnett Company, p.14

Stokes IT designs and generates online shopping interfaces whose simple navigation and effective design will not only attract customers but help them find exactly what they seek.

Stokes IT has an array of styles for your online shopping needs. Whether you are looking to sell just a few items or a range of products, we can develop a payment system through online routines that direct the revenue straight to your bank account.


For an online shopping site you need:         • A shopping cart or form of payment
                                                                     • A merchant bank account or Paypal account
                                                                     • A payment gateway if you are using a merchant account


A shopping cart is just as it says a bucket in which to store products, which in reality is just a table in a MySQL database. When the customer wishes to check out you need to gather their credit card details and this is done through a secure payment gateway. Most commonly the gateway belongs to the bank and the client is redirected to the banks server to input their details in a secure environment.

Payment gateways are provided through your bank or your web host. As a web host Stokes IT can provide you with a payment gateway to all of the major banks in Australia.

For all of this to work you need a merchant account with a bank that will allow you to accept credit card payments. This is not that difficult as most businesses have this. If you buy something at a shop with a credit card that shop will have a merchant account with a bank that allows them to accept credit card payments.

However, there are restrictions that most banks place on merchant accounts for online shopping sites. For instance depending on the bank you may have to keep a minimum deposit in your account of at least a few thousand dollars.

Credit card payments are a risk for banks as they are responsible ultimately for credit card fraud etc. Also the bank is interested in what type of products you are selling. If the customer is unhappy with the product and returns it, they need a debit on their credit card from the bank. If a customer questions a credit card payment it may also have to be reversed. This is more work for the bank and costs them money.

That’s why most banks see less risk in dating sites, e-books, software download sites etc that do not have to ship products. It is less risk for you and for the Bank.

For each credit card payment made to you from your online shopping site, you will have to pay a percentage of the sale to the bank. This ranges from 3% to 8% depending on the risk that the bank assesses. It averages around 4-5 %.

One other requirement that the bank may have is that they want your site to have been trading for a period of time, six to twelve months. I hear you say, how is it possible to have been trading without a bank account or a method to accept credit card payments? That’s where Paypal comes in.