Payment gateway or merchant account?

Hi,

I have been reading about the differences of the two and am wondering what others did when they first set up a dolphin e-commerce website. Do i start of with paypal etc and then get a merchant account or do i just get a merchant account from the begining? This is new to me and i want to test it but at the same time i want my site to be professional and simple to use. I will be selling physical products for delivery.

Most importantly, does dophin work with most of the products out there and is there alot of additional programming involved?

What did you do? How easy was it? did it work well?

Thanks in advance.

M

A merchant account can be expensive if you havent the established revenue generation at the start or shortly thereafter. I stayed away from one for years, paid into it, then dropped it for most of my projects because really, I didnt need to pay the money to someone else. I'd suggest keeping things as simple and cost effective for as long as you can. Merchant solutions is a subject that has alot of twists and turns. If you can, while you are making money without one, research, research, research.