Do I need to buy an SSL Certificate?

[kittykat]

Hello

newbie post here
I'm new to zencart and ecommerce. I'm planning ahead and looking for webhosting. I am working & testing on my home pc as a localhost at the moment, sorry if this sounds like a silly question - I was wondering, as I plan to use paypal, do I need to buy an SSL certificate? I would need to protect customers personal details, but I won't be taking any card details myself, as I don't have a merchant bank account

sorry, not sure how paypal/zencart works together yet or where the SSL bit fits in to the process. Would I need the SSL for the customer registration pages and transfer to paypal?

thanks

[mprough]

Are you required to use an SSL with PayPal? No

Should you? Yes

For the 10$ investment your customers will feel more safe.

~Melanie

[kittykat]

Ok, thanks - that explains things better

[ttrowell]

Additionally, some customers won't shop in any form or want emails from you if you site isn't secure. (my experience!)