How to Choose Your Ecommerce Hosting

Ecommerce hosting, in simple words, relates to your web host's ability to let you sell your products or services from your website. In its primitive, ecommerce hosting usually means your website has an interface between display of your items and a shopping cart system, proceeding thereon to accepting payment real-time in secured environment. An ideal ecommerce hosting ensures complete buying experience for those viewers of your website who wish to acquire your products or services.

While this is the end-solution for ecommerce hosting, the way the process is arranged differs in more ways than one. This means that while the site users' experience may not vary much, for merchants it will be a trade-off among several possibilities. In the paragraphs below, we will explore various tenets of ecommerce hosting from a merchant's point of view.

Ecommerce Hosting - Where to Start

As briefly touched upon above, ecommerce hosting stands on 3 main pillars, namely display of products, selection and adding them to your virtual cart which then automatically calculates total amount payable, and lastly paying for the items selected for buying.

Since your website resides on host server, you have to choose an ecommerce hosting that ensures your buyer does not suffer inconvenience while making a purchase. At the same time you may be averse to spending on high-end ecommerce hosting, preferring instead to focus on marketing your website.

It therefore boils down to either choosing an ecommerce hosting that only supplies necessary amenities so that you can do it on your own (let's call them 'supplied ecommerce hosting'), or go for 'hosted ecommerce' that does it all for you. The principal difference between the two is how much you agree to pay and why.

Supplied Ecommerce Hosting

Necessary amenities being available, many budding web entrepreneurs short on cash prefer an ecommerce hosting like this. What do you get here? In most cases of supplied ecommerce hosting, among other things common, you will get a full-featured open-source shopping cart system (like oscommerce, zen-cart, agora cart, etc.) free of cost.

All you need to do is install the cart on your website and then dress it up as per your needs. Some programming knowledge may be necessary to make the cart work perfectly for you. If time is a constraint or you feel you are not up to it, you may outsource the small adjustments needed in the cart system. Many web hosts agree to help as a goodwill gesture to their ecommerce hosting customers. Do not forget to explore this.

Once your shopping cart is up and running, the next step will be to tie up with a payment system. If you are frugal, consider availing Paypal service. It is easy and fast to open an account and you can get going in no time. If you have chanced upon Paypal before having installed the shopping cart of your ecommerce hosting, do consider some of the excellent carts showcased there. You may get good value for your money.

Okay, you have tied up your cart with a payment acceptance system. Have you tested it? Do it before going live. It is important.

Hosted Ecommerce

If supplied ecommerce hosting is at one end, the other end belongs to hosted ecommerce. In fact, hosted ecommerce may be the perfect ecommerce hosting if you pay extra. Since the entire shopping cart system comes installed with all bells and whistles, all you need to do is upload your products and start selling. If this sounds good, it indeed is. Examples? Try Site Build It!, ekmpowershop, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, etc.

In final analysis, you will of course choose what best suits your need, but if you wish to start your e-business, look for a competent ecommerce hosting solution.

About The Author

Joshua Mabilia - admin @ hostingfrenzy.com

Josh is the webmaster of http://www.hostingfrenzy.com

Visit his site for a comprehensive web hosting directory, articles, tools, and much more.

 Joshua Mabilia

More Articles 

Ecommerce - Boost Your Business ROI - Rick Caraballo
Did you know that over 90% of all online orders are processed by credit cards and that web sites that offer customers the ability to pay with credit cards can achieve up to 300% more sales than those that do not? It's a fact. Not only do...

Canada's eCommerce Opportunity - Craig Smith MBA Founder Managing Director Trinity Insight LLC
This brief takes an updated view of the Canadian e-commerce landscape and provides insight for online retailers to help craft future Canadian customer strategies. Canadian eCommerce growth was recently flat but still has an...

Building eCommerce Websites That Work - Part 1 - Richard Keir
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir You want to succeed at eCommerce? Welcome to a very big family. Right off, let’s be clear - there are lots of ways to do business on the internet. And lots of ways to both make and lose money. Successful eCommerce...

Why VPS is Perfect for eCommerce Hosting - Jason Chance
I want to preface this little article with this fact: The optimal environment for an ecommerce website is a dedicated server. Nothing else offers you the level of control, security, and customizability as a dedicated web appliance for the...

Ecommerce Website Development Brings More People To Your Business - LeeAnna
If you have a business and you want to tell more people about your business and what service you offer to the public or what product you're selling. Putting your business on the Internet today offers you the chance to reach millions of people...

Ecommerce Website Owners: Are You Leaving Money On The Counter? - Robin Porter
Own an ecommerce website? Do you have a mailing list? If not, you’re potentially leaving a lot of money on the counter. Keeping in touch with your past customers and visitors, is one of the easiest and cost effective methods of increasing your...

Ecommerce: Mashups And Future Site Function - Scott Lindsay
What comes to your mind when you hear the term ‘Mashups”? It is likely whatever comes to mind will not come close to the actual thought process behind the term unless, of course, you are already familiar with the concept. The term ‘mashups’ has...

eCommerce: Installing and Configuring your Shopping Cart - Veronica Bendersky
You decided you're going to sell your products online. Or perhaps you don't want to sell them yet, only display your catalog. So how do you go ahead and implement your virtual shop? The answer is short: you need to install a shopping cart in...

Ever Wondered What An eCommerce Merchant Account Is? - Jeff Usher
An eCommerce merchant account can be likened to the cashier of an actual, physical store. They process payments, and eCommerce merchant accounts do the same, albeit, with added flair and whole lot more features. Much like how an actual, physical...

Getting Started in ECommerce - Part One - Heidi Richards MS
In 2004, Enquiro.com conducted a study of the search behaviors of men vs. women. They found that women spend more time in their searches and at specific sites. The study also revealed that women tend to be more deliberate in reading search results,...

Developing a Winning Ecommerce Strategy - Lee Traupel
One bright spot on the economic horizons around the world seems to be continued consumer spending and ecommerce is clearly a part of this, with sales estimated to be in excess of $9.9 Billion in the next three months according to ACNielsen. But,...

Ecommerce 101 – Online Credit Card Processing - Nick Temple
Back in 1998 (through 2000 or so), I worked for a small company (called PaymentNet / then Signio) that handled online transactions. Verisign later purchased this company, and the product team I led integrated the "client" - the portion that took...