Nice idea …. but
Sure, a direct-debit arrangement can be easily sorted, but a credit card type of electronic processing sytem...? Having been the champion in setting up this sort of process in the real business world one needs to be aware of not only the costs but also the accumulation of on-going and operational costs. Certainly, the technology is available and can be made to work; however, much care needs to be taken when considering features over benefits. Website designed for a purpose - such as this one which is basically a site for dissemination of information and not as a business transactional medium – can be a candidate for feature-creep if not controlled. I would state that a feasibility study without emotional tags is imperative. Costs such as being set up with Merchant Banking facilities generally required when extra (or more expedient/efficient/affective) sales are able to recover costs that are measurable against the existing process, set up coding costs and maintenance generally handled by a provider as providers do not allow source code access, security and administration/monitoring costs – which can be more than opening a letter and banking the cheque. You need a very high turnover of transactional cash-flow to make electronic transactions worthwhile.