XSeries-forum

A couple of questions for anyone that sells online or similar.
The better 'alf wants to start a new business selling certain products online, posting to Europe and beyond, ( hopefully ), and I'd like to assist her in any way possible, so a couple of questions to anyone that actually sells online, and has real world experience.
Firstly, taking payments for goods, now I know we have good old PayPal, but not everyone likes that payment method, and there's always the fees to consider, so if she was to offer an alternative would it just be one of the many card payment schemes out there, and is it worth seeing what the bank has to offer regarding this type of payment, ( please forgive my ignorance, as PayPal is all I've ever dealt with ).
Secondly, postage costs, now the weight/ size could vary a bit so is there such a tool/software that you can add to your website to show the cost of postage as the weight of the contents increase as the items are added to your basket, or is it better just to offer certain postage costs for certain weight parcels and then leave it to the buyers to get the best value for money when shopping, ie. get the maximum amount of shopping to fill the box for that particular postage amount, ( hope that makes sense ).
If you have any other ideas regarding the postage side of things then please shout out.
I'm hoping to earn brownie points from this, so don't let me down, lol.
Thanx.

on the postage side (ive been breaking e30s) if going to the channel isle use royal mail, it things are tiny (glasses case size) use them smaal stuff is £3 ish couriors normally have a minimum of £6ish,, i price everything on parcel2go then ship with a local parcel drop in centre that use all the major couriors, ive posted to australia, porta rico, brazil etc aussie is v,expensive £60 to send a spoiler, it also goes alot more on weight than size, over 30kg is a major factor and pretty much doubles the price as only certain companys take them, some idea of prices ive paid so you get the idea of its weight more than size:uk-uk= car door £12, bonnet £15, alloy wheels 17" £7.50 each, 22" wheels (under 30kg) £10 each, 20s (over 30kg) £20 each, and everything else is in between, there just some of the more strange items, hope thats of use