I am currently using paypal to take payments and would like to switch to some kind of ecommerce solution.

Can anyone recommend an ecommerce solution ie. merchant account and gateway for a small business with room to grow? One that sells ebooks, software, memberships, web hosting and other non-tangeable goods?

I am looking for something reliable and that can easily be coded so the whole thing is automated.

Thanks,

What country are you based out of?
I know of some stuff , buts its fairly Canadian oriented.

It will be important to know whether you are U.S.-based or non-U.S.

If you are U.S.-based, there are a number of very good options available to you that can solve your need in a fully automated manner that is cost effective and easy to implement.

If you are non-U.S. in origin, there are still good options available but the pricing won't be as competitive.

USA all the way. :)

The an business in question will be based in the USA.

Hii FreeSpeech,

Chris @ CDG offers a nice solution (out of what I understand).

Another good one is e-online data. They do have minimum monthly fees, but the rates and their service are outstanding.

Check around - figure out what you might need, ie a virtual terminal, online reports, etc. If you are going to be processing more than $1000 a month consider a true merchant account. If it is less or very sporadic - consider a third party merchant account.

Since you are U.S.-based, you do have some great options available that would be very cost effective for your stated needs.

For instance, you could get started with a company that offers you a free or low setup cost and preferably one with a gateway that offers built-in recurring billing, a virtual terminal and one with an easy-to-integrate API. There are a number of options out there that can do all of the above.

That way, you can truly automate all of your order processing for your various product/service lines and consolidate it through a single merchant account & gateway.

If your volume is not over $1K/month currently, you will probably want to sign up with a processor that doesn't require a monthly minimum fee (most providers do) and make sure to check out their references, especially here on the WHT forum, to see what other similar merchants to yourself have experienced with each processor.