Thread: ECommerce Site (from scratch)

Hi, I just want to know is it possible to develop a web site that can accept payments that does not operate on top of an off the shelf application (osCommerce, Magneto, etc). I appreciate all the functionality that you get from those OTS apps, but it really bothers me how they make integration in to your own site design a pain along with reflecting new business requirements in a moments notice. Don't get me wrong I know it is possible to customize themes/templates for such systems for example, but I have never arrived at an online store that uses them and not found something that gave away that it was hacked together on top of one. What I am looking for is complete control.

I am a PHP (amongst other things) developer. I am happy developing MVC applications and consuming web services, etc. I am security conscious coder. So I know I could develop a site and integrate with Realex, etc no problem. So my question is not, "is this technically possible", because I'm positive it is.

My question is, will a client who is applying for an online merchant account from a bank, have the bank wondering how his eCommerce website is built?. I am worried that if they come along and don't see the likes of osCommerce, etc, they will reject his application. Also surely one of the first things he need to do prior to paying me to develop such a site is to get his merchant service agreement from the bank. So in advance of me actually developing the site, how could the bank probe how the site is built or would they give him a list of requirements and say "fulfill those". Where one of those requirements could be an OTS ecommerce app that he should use to build the site. Again I'm a bit clueless here in terms of what the banks, compliance authorities, etc will require.

For now he's not expecting massive demand online, but over time he expects to scale operations. He doesn't want to use PayPal, he wants quick deposits in his company bank account. He is not selling high risk goods. It's all very above board from an established retail business that now wants to expand online.

My plan is to literally develop a catalog portal for him, where I can completely customize the presentation on the public site and system functionality, depending on the new business requirements at a moments notice. For that reason I don't want to have to wonder "how the hell am I going to get osCommerce to do this/that".

In terms of PCI compliance, etc, what do I need to know. E.g. the checkout section of the site will served over SSL. I will not store credit card details on any customer, other than passing those details to the payment gateway during the transaction, etc.

Basically if proceed with developing this from scratch, what concerns from a management & compliance perspective do I need to address in my approach?