When starting out, the first point of call is to set up an e-commerce/online merchant account with your bank of choice. You cannot make use of your existing bank account because the risks associated with online trade are very different (however, these accounts will obviously be linked once you are up and running). Depending on the applicant, this process can take anywhere between two weeks to three months to set up. Once your bank has approved the application, the next step is to partner with a payment gateway provider to process the online payments