What Is Ecommerce Web Hosting Service?

It is a quite challenging job to find the right ecommerce web hosting plan that will fulfill your organizations needs and demands. Now-a-days, there is a huge demand for web hosting, especially the ecommerce web hosting. So, many web hosting service providers are providing many exciting offers and plans to the users. You just need to research on the Internet about the best and cost-effective ecommerce web hosting service available.

Ecommerce web hosting is an excellent business and if you are professional business-person, then this business will yield a lot of profit to you and your website. The price of the web hosting service varies according to the quality of service, the support, and the number of features it provides to the users. Even if many companies provide web hosting service for free, they make their profits some or the other way. They can, for instance, sell their banner ads on the free websites they provide to their free clients.

However, this type of web hosting is quite risky as it does not provide web security or professional support service. This type of service is very instable and the free web hosting service provider may disappear very quickly from the Internet. You should choose this type of free web hosting service only if you are not using it for any important business.

You can make use of free web hosting service for hosting your family photographs, your personal information and profiles, or to test your skills at website designing.

However, if you are planning to host an important website, especially an ecommerce website or a business website, on the internet about your important business, or related to any other important work, then you should always go for paid ecommerce web hosting service provider.

For making profits in this field, you need to add some special features to your website so that the users can make use of these special features. These special features are only available if you use the professional web hosting service provider which, of course, will charge you a reasonable price for the use of their hosting service.

Add Shopping Carts To Your Website

Your ecommerce website plan or the web hosting service should have many free shopping carts on it which you can download. You need to see whether that web host has Fantastico tool on it, because Fantastico comes with many easy features and web scripts, including great shopping cart scripts, which enables you to install these shopping carts on your website through simple clicks!

Bandwidth And The Disk Space

The larger the bandwidth and the disk space, the better it is for you to host the website on the ecommerce web hosting server. This is because, if you have a very good ecommerce website but you do not have enough bandwidth and disk space, then it may affect the traffic to your website and even your ecommerce website will need to become offline when the smaller bandwidth allocation is used up for the month. You may not be able to expand your ecommerce website if required, because you do not have ample disk space. So, choose the plan carefully and see that your ecommerce site is never in problem. An ecommerce website ideally must be online and accessible by every visitor at all times.

SSL

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a security related protocol that helps in making the message transactions like the online payment process and other important details very secure through encryption process. SSL is very important for making secure online money transactions, for example, taking credit card details of your customers or their Paypal payments securely over the internet where web hackers are continuously creeping around to seek a chance to steal these critically important personal details of your customers.

If you have a secured website, then your online visitors will also be not afraid to make online transactions. So, you have to also check whether your ecommerce web host provides you SSL.

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is software that enables you to upload your web files, affiliate links, audios, videos, and images to your website easily.

Reliability

The ecommerce web host that you are choosing has to be completely reliable. Their web server needs to have above 99.5% or even 100% uptime guarantee (the 100% uptime guarantee is made possible through have a backup server with the mirrored website to instantly take over if the master web server fails. The web surfers should be able visit your website anytime and should ideally never confront the message that the web server is down for whatever reason. Your website needs to be online and accessible by its visitors at all times.

Price

The price of the ecommerce web hosting service should ideally be affordable. After all, you are buying this web host service to make profits and not to loose money. There are many different ecommerce web hosting service providers who provide the ecommerce web hosting service are a cheap rate. You can buy this type of cheap web host services for your small or medium online business. But take care that even though the service is cheap, it offers high quality in the above-said features.

Support

The support that you get or you provide should be instant, professional, and be of top quality. If you do not have high-class support facility, then, one day or the other, you will land up in a situation which cannot be resolved by you. So, you need to have excellent support system in place, either this support should be provided by your experts, or by the hosting company’s experts. You should be able to provide as well as get instant professional quality help and support.

To become successful in ecommerce, you need to do complete research on the internet about all the above mentioned features. Remember, it is not the price of the ecommerce web hosting service that matters, it is the supreme quality that it offers!

Small Business Web Hosting

Many small business websites starts off with a small web hosting package and and upgrade the hosting package as their traffic grows. This is always a better option where you can upgrade and downgrade the package as per website requirements. Its advisable to consider a web hosting company which offers flexible upgrade options and help the business to grow more.

It is not necessary to consider a cheap and affordable business web site hosting option. All you need is reliable servers where you can run shopping cart scripts housing hundreds of products. Its a good idea to go for a mid-range web hosting option that has reliability and the hosting company which is in business for more than 5 years. The most important is flexible upgrade options that can handle your small business web site as it grows to maturity.

There are many people who search for “Free Web Hosting” on internet for their small business websites. But the matter of fact is , you always get what you pay for. There is some reason behind offering free web hosting service. You have limitations on a free hosting account which restricts you to do half the things you actually want to. Support is crap and worst is the advertising.One thing clear from all this is “free web hosting” is never free. They’ll always get their money somehow.

“Free” in web hosting terms = crap

So why to consider a free hosting package for your business website?

Go with the professional web hosting company for your small business website weher they know what they are doing.

The  two main options for operating system are Unix/Linux systems and Windows for your small business web hosting account. Its recommended to go for Linux over windows as windows OS has lot of restrictions and limitations. There are plenty of scripts which you can run efficiently on Linux compared to windows.

Always choose a serious contendor for your business website hosting. The best support service is what you should be looking at.Rapid and helpful support is what you need to solve your queries. Response times to the support issues is most important in this case. You have to keep in mind that small business web hosting is no exception and you need to take care of your website. Consider a web hosting company which offer 24×7 support via email or chat. You should be able to contact them anytime you wish for techinical assistance.

configuring email addresses, setting up MySQL databases to run scripts, creating autoresponders, gather server details to allow you to configure scripts, view your visitor statistics and more is required to setup a small business website. All these  features are available in web based control which is offered on the web hosting package. You will have username and password to log in and configure the settings of your website.

The most used control panels are cPanel and Plesk. cPanel is offered on linux web hosting packages whereas Plesk is offered on windows web hosting package.

Web Hosting Service

Web hosting services can come in many different forms, whether it is a basic virtual web hosting package that is hosted on a server shared with many others, or a dedicated server for which you are the sole user. The web hosting industry has grown over the past few years, meaning that there is now more web hosts than ever offering different sorts of web hosting services meaning that there is no shortage of choice for those looking to purchase a web hosting service. The best known types of web hosting service include shared website hosting accounts, reseller web hosting accounts and VPS web hosting accounts.
In order for a web host to be able to offer a basic web hosting service, such as a shared web hosting account or a reseller web hosting account, certain programs and features are required to ensure that the customer is able to manage their website hosting account with ease. For example, a web host would need to deploy some sort of control panel for customers to access so that they can manage their web hosting accounts; examples of web hosting control panels include:

• cPanel – cPanel is one of the most popular and best known control panels for Linux web hosting, and will soon be available for Windows web hosting services

• Plesk – Plesk is one of the most popular control panels for Microsoft Windows web hosting service, it is also available for Linux web hosting service

• LXAdmin – LXAdmin is a little known lightweight control panel for Linux
Web hosting service can be purchase on either Windows or Linux hosting platforms, although in most cases your choice will be dependent on your needs. If you have developed your website using the PHP scripting language, and have used a MySQL database backend, then you will most likely choose a Linux web hosting package since this combination works best in a Linux web hosting environment. If you have developed a classic ASP or ASP.NET web application that is utilizing a Microsoft SQL Server backend, then you will probably want to choose a Windows web hosting service since these products will only work within a Microsoft Windows hosting environment.

Other types of web hosting service for the more advanced user and businesses large small include VPS servers and dedicated servers. Web hosts create VPS by taking a physical hardware node, or in other words, a physical server, and then use virtualization software such as Parallel’s Virtuozzo to divide the physical node up into separate VPS. In most cases there are many VPS sharing the hardware on a physical VPS hosting node. The higher end alternative to a VPS server is a dedicated server, on which you are the only user; unlike any other form of web hosting service, you are not sharing the hardware or resources of a dedicated server with anyone else, unless you choose to share the server with others.

Some web hosts offer web hosting service tailored to specific needs, for example some web hosts offer special ecommerce web hosting services for those clients who need a specialist web hosting service to manage their ecommerce website. Specialist business web hosting services have also been created recently, most of which offer businesses with the promise of 100% uptime; most businesses need the reliability of 100% uptime these days for their websites since the internet is becoming of increasing importance as a source of business.
For novices, some web hosts are even offering specific web hosting services that are tailored towards the hosting of small to medium sized websites. For example, there are now special web hosting services available for those who have developed websites using special techniques; this would include websites built using the PHP scripting language along with a MySQL database and a website built using the ASP.NET scripting language with a Microsoft SQL Server backend.

When looking for a web hosting service, it is important that you choose one that is well within your budget and suits for your needs perfectly. Finding the right web hosting service for you shouldn’t be too hard since there is a mass of choice in the web hosting industry these days. You should try and compare all the different web hosting services that might fit you criteria, since at the end of the deal you want the best deal.

ASP Web Hosting

ASP.NET is Microsoft’s most current server-side scripting language used by many to develop dynamic web applications that are able to interact with databases created using the Microsoft SQL Server system. Since many dynamic websites are now being created using the ASP.NET language, web hosts need to ensure that they are able to provide customers both new and old with ASP web hosting, so that they are able to host any ASP applications that they have created. ASP web hosting needs to be based on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system; this is because ASP.NET is a free Microsoft product meaning that it will only run under Microsoft operating systems.

In most cases, your web host will provide you with a control panel to allow you to manage your ASP web hosting. For example, in most cases you will be provided with the Plesk control panel to allow you to manage your ASP.NET based web applications that are hosted within your ASP web hosting account. You will also be provided with access to an installed of Microsoft SQL Server so that you can manage any databases that you may need to ensure that your ASP.NET based web applications are able to run dynamically within a ASP web hosting environment.

You will want to ensure that you are able to gain access to your ASP web hosting account using the FTP protocol, since this will allow you to upload your website files using the built in upload function contained within Microsoft Visual Web Developer or Microsoft Visual Studio. Nearly every web hosting allows access via FTP so that users can upload their files with ease, although it is still one feature that you should ensure is available when looking for an ASP web hosting account. In most cases, the standard ASP web hosting account will allow you to:
• Upload and manage files using the FTP protocol to allow management from VWD and Visual Studio
• Set permissions on any files or folders that you may have hosted within your ASP web hosting account so that all your scripts and pages are able to function correctly
• Connect to and manage any databases within a Microsoft SQL Server environment using Microsoft SQL Server Manager Express
• Host web pages and scripts built using the classic ASP and ASP.NET programming languages.
One of the most important factors of ASP web hosting that you will need to ensure you have access to be the ability to set permissions on files and folders that you have hosted within your account. The main reason for this is that you are probably run some scripts or pages that need access to other directories or files in order for them to function correctly. An example of this would be if you are running an ASP.NET upload script within your ASP web hosting account; you would need to set the relevant permissions on the directory concerned so that your script would be able to upload files to the intended directory, thus functioning correctly.
One important thing to realize is that both classic ASP and ASP.NET only run on Microsoft Windows Server operating systems, meaning that if you find an ASP web hosting account that claims to be based on Linux, you can guarantee that it’s false. Most web hosts offering ASP web hosting will display the ASP.NET logo on their website so that potential customers are drawn to the fact that their packages support either ASP or ASP.NET, or both. Most web hosts also have a dedicated Windows Server and ASP web hosting support team, meaning that if you do face any problems with your account, you will be able to ensure that they are sorted quickly.

Classic ASP itself has been around for the last 10 years, only recently being replaced by Microsoft’s better developed ASP.NET platform. ASP.NET has now been developed up version 3.5, after going through versions 1.0 and 2.0. Since the beginning, there has always been a niche market for special ASP web hosting, and has been an area that has been exploited by many web hosts to stir up more interest in the ASP.NET platform. As a platform, ASP.NET allows you:
• More interaction with Windows hosting servers
• Better interaction and integration Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005 databases
• Easier development using Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

You should only really take out an ASP web hosting package if you are going to be hosted ASP based pages or scripts within it, since otherwise you could be wasting your money if you could easily host your web pages and other services on a cheaper type of web hosting package. For example, if you have taken out an ASP web hosting package with only the intension of hosting static HTML pages, you will be wasting your money; this is because you could easily achieve the same by hosting your static web pages on a cheaper cPanel hosting package.

Business Hosting

Business rely on their websites to bring them trade and customers. If a business’s website experiences any sort of downtime, the business itself could be affected since it could lead to lost revenue and customers could lose their trust in the business, if the business for example is a web hosting business. It is because of this that a market for so called ‘business hosting’ has sprung up within the web hosting industry. Most business hosting packages offer a high amount of uptime which should suit most businesses needs, as well as extras which are more suited towards businesses rather than individuals.
Most of the web hosting companies are taking advantage of the latest advances in web hosting technology to provide corporate clients with the peace of mind that they will receive 100% uptime on their business website hosting package. If a business’s revenue was to suffer due to its website being down, then the losses made will probably be greater than the cost of a business website hosting package that is able to guarantee 100% uptime; this is the main reason for many businesses moving over to business hosting since they would rather pay the extra expense that comes with business hosting rather than have to face losses of a higher value because their website went down on a standard website hosting package.
Although in the past the main solution for businesses that need a high amount of uptime was a dedicated server, many small businesses and new start-ups that needed a reliable web hosting service were unable to afford a dedicated server. However, the average cost of a standard business website hosting package is just a bit more than that of a standard website hosting package and about the same as a reasonable specification VPS; this means that reliable business hosting is now within the reach of both small businesses and start-ups that need a reliable service.
Most business web hosting packages act in the same way as a standard web hosting package does, in the way that you are given a reliable and common control panel to administrate your website with and are able to access a 24×7 support team in most cases. On Windows business hosting for example, you are provided with access to a Plesk control panel account so that you can control your business hosting account in the same way you would control a Windows hosting account. On Linux you are given access to a cPanel account to administrate and manage your business hosting account just like you would with a standard Linux hosting account.
One thing you should be cautious of when looking for a business hosting package is the technology that each web host uses to provide 100% uptime. You should also read the terms and conditions, since in most cases there will be something in the small print saying that the host isn’t able to truly achieve 100% guaranteed uptime. Sometimes a web host may be using old and outdated technology and techniques which may not be able to provide 100% guaranteed uptime. At the end of the day, it is exactly 100% uptime you want for your business website, no less.
One of the most reliable techniques at the current time used by many webhosts, include eUKhost, to provide business customers with 100% uptime is the technique of having a backup server available for immediate deployment for each business hosting server. The data on the main server and the ‘slave’ server is always in sync, meaning that if the main server was to go down, the slave server would automatically come into play with all the data of the main server in tact. Both servers will also share the same IP addresses, meaning that if the main server goes down all the IP addresses assigned to it will be automatically picked up by the slave server. So, in practise if the main server was to go down, you as the business customer wouldn’t know since all the data is kept in sync between the main server and the slave server.
Most web hosts are normally generous with the amount of bandwidth and disk space that they assigned to each business hosting account, meaning that you as the business customer can upload a large website to host from your business website hosting accounts. The main reason for this is that web hosts try to limit the amount of users they have on one business hosting server to below 10, so that the integrity of the server can be assured and to ensure that the use of resources doesn’t go spiraling out of control.
Most business hosting servers are built to a high specification and contain the best hardware around, so that if any downtime does occur, the hardware of the server itself is most likely not to be at fault. Web hosts also try to ensure that the server software itself is always up to date so that if any loopholes are found in older versions, the software on the business hosting server can’t be compromised so that malicious hackers can gain access to the server.
Web hosts will also ask for some sort of identification to ensure that you are a valid person who is purchasing business hosting, proof of your business may also be required in some situations since web hosts only want to allow genuine businesses on their business hosting servers, and not individuals who are after reliable hosting. Types of identification that might be requested include a passport, driving license or other type of official government issued identification.
So, in conclusion if you are a business that requires a reliable hosting package because you rely on your website for your trade, you should try out a business hosting package so that you can be ensured 100% uptime. If you are an individual who wants to be guaranteed a high amount of uptime, you should try either a VPS or dedicated server since in most cases, a web host won’t let you purchase a business hosting plan from them.

E-commerce Hosting

E-commerce (also known as electric commerce) is the term applied to the process of buying and selling goods over the internet and forms of computer based network. In this modern day and age, most retails offer some sort of e-commerce solution to allow customers to purchase products online; E-commerce Hosting is also used by auction websites to allow users to sell their own products or items online. The e-commerce hosting process includes the purchase of a product, as well as the payment for it using electronic methods. Many banks are now offering services to allow large retailers to offer ecommerce hosting services to customers; this means that the number of retailers moving to sell their products online as well as in the shop is growing.
Although the internet may be dominated by large online retailers who have developed their own e-commerce websites. However, for smaller retailers there is still a chance with ecommerce hosting since there are many freely available e-commerce programs that they can use to help develop an online shop for their business. There also a number of websites known as ‘payment gateways’ that smaller retailers can use to process payments for any products that are purchased through their online shop, meaning that they are able to have the whole ‘e-commerce experience’. Identifying the right ecommerce hosting program for you needs is important, since there are many different ones available, some of which may meet your criteria in some areas where others do in other areas.
If you are hosted on a cPanel website hosting package, then the likelihood is that you have access to the Fantastico script auto-installer. If you don’t feel that you have the necessary knowledge to install an ecommerce hosting package, then you should have a look to see if any of the e-commerce programs that are provided with Fantastico fit your needs. If you feel that you don’t have the knowledge to install an e-commerce package for your website and are hosted on a different sort of website hosting package or don’t have access to the Fantastico script auto-installer, you should contact your web host’s install team since in most cases they should be able to install the package for you.
We will now go through the most popular ecommerce hosting packages that are freely available for use, meaning that you can get your online shop started with zero cost, apart from the cost of the web hosting package you are using.

OSCommerce

OSCommerce is one of the better known and popular ecommerce hosting packages freely available on the internet. It is estimated that there is currently over 14,000 live OSCommerce stores on the internet, and well over 4,000 plugins meaning that you will never be short of options to customize your OSCommerce store with. It has been written using the PHP scripting language and uses MySQL as its database backend, meaning that it is compatible with almost any hosting situation; this allows it to be hosted on a Linux cPanel hosting server as well as a Windows hosting server. For those hosted on a Linux cPanel server who feel they don’t have the necessary knowledge to install OSCommerce, it can be easily installed from the Fantastico script auto-installer.

OSCommerce comes with the ability to display your online shop in several different languages, allowing you to attract foreign customers as well as native customers. Other regional tools include the ability for the prices of your products to be displayed appropriately in different currencies.
On installation, the database is automatically filled with example text and products so that you get an idea of how the program functions before you proceed to listing your own products or changing any of the settings.

One of the main features of OSCommerce is its ability to allow your customers to manage their customer account that they have with yourn online shop, meaning that they can track any orders that they’ve placed both current and previous.

Zen Cart
Like OSCommerce, Zen Cart is a freely available open source online shop/shopping cart system that you can deploy on your website quickly and easily from the Fantastico auto-installer if you are on cPanel website hosting. Like OSCommerce, it allows you list your products and services and facitlitates functions to allow you to integrate it with any subscriptions to third party payment gateways you may have. It has also been built using the PHP programming language and uses MySQL as its database backend; like OSCommerce, it means that it can be hosted on both Linux and Windows hosting platforms that have the necessary server components installed to accommodate PHP and MySQL.

Zen Cart is also fully customizable design wise, meaning that if you already have a rather popular website, you can cash on this buy adding an online shop which visitors can then use to purchase your products and services. It also means that you can keep the design of your online shop inline with that of your existing website.

Zen Cart also has full support for coupons and gift certificates, meaning that if you want to, you can run special offers on your online shop to intise in more customers and to clear stock that you no longer need.
Cube Cart
Cube Cart is also an e-commerce solution that is included with the Fantastico script auto-installer and is built using the PHP scripting language with a MySQL backend, again making it a cross-platform option for those who want to add an online shop to their website. Cube Cart is also customizable design wise, meaning that you can easily blend it in with your existing website if needed, so that your visitors don’t notice any difference between the two. Its main features include the ability to feature one of the products that you have in your catalog as well as multi-currency support and other regional tools.

If you use a courier service that provides you with a tracking service, then you can add the tracking code into the account of the customer concerned to allow them to track their order, giving you one less thing to worry about whilst you are running your business. Support for photo galleries is also included so that you can add multiple photos of one product if you wish.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you are a small retailer looking to starting your own online shop, then there are many Ecommerce Hosting solutions that you can install yourself using the Fantastico script auto-installer if you are on cPanel website hosting. All the applications discussed are cross-platform and free meaning that you can freely use them on any operating system that you can install PHP and MySQL on for use with a web server.