how/where do i get shopping cart features. And how do I integrate them with my webpage.

http://www.oscommerce.com/

That is a popular shopping cart system. However it is complete and not really made it integrate into your current pages.

ok another question, after you get a merchant account how do you go about using it on your site. (Not with a shopping cart)

For that you will need the shopping cart functionality. In other words there is no easy answer to your current question. If you want this stuff totally integrated with your current website it will take quite a bit of custom programming which can get pricey. However if you are willing to use something like oscommerce and build up from that then you have all the functionality you need including several third party payment processors.

With your merchant account you will need a payment processor. Some are more expensive than others.

Tony,

The Captain is correct. And just to ellaborate on what he has said, there are plenty of "free" open souce shopping cart scripts like OSCommerce products out there that only need minor adjustments to make work with your requirements. However, what you need is a host that will accomodate the system you wish to work with.

Once you make the deal with your bank and/or get a merchant account online, you may use any of several online transaction processing systems like "AuthorizeNet", "CCBill" ... to capture your account checkouts.

Many hosting facilities offer packaged solutions that may meet your goals and need. Just remember, you will also need a hosting facility that will accomodate an SSL for encrypted CC processing. For further elaboration to these matters, please feel free to PM me and / or IM me and I will freely offer you my experiences with regards to these matters.

GR

Yes shopping carts can get tricky. Remeber the most important thing IMHO is to get a solution that will work for what you selling. There is nothing worse than getting your shopping cart setup and then finding out that you need a special feature like discount pricing and it's not part of your cart. You either have to pay to get it customized or start over. Take it from me I've been there and back. Find out ever feature you are going to need then search for your cart. I would also recommend finding a solution that will allow you to create static pages and your own html designs because you can then easily move your site over and integrate with the ecommerce solution.