E-commerce hosting is a web hosting service which fulfills the requirements of e-commerce websites. E-commerce web hosting plans offer web hosting and with this, it also offers software, tools, and other solutions for online merchants. E-commerce web hosting plans also known as business hosting plans allow merchants to track inventory, accept orders, create online catalogs, and secure payments for goods and services online. All the hosting plans are not appropriate for e-commerce web hosting. Features which are needed by e-commerce website are included in most of the web hosting plans, whereas other web hosts focus on electronic commerce web hosting.Best E-Commerce Hosting Providers
What are the requirements of E-commerce web hosting?
E-commerce sites have basic web hosting requirements
A domain name: A domain name is an identification string or alphanumeric string, used as an address for a computer network. Domain name system (DNS) contains some rules and procedures and by following the same, domain names are formed. Any name registered in the DNS is a domain name. A domain name represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as your personal computer by which Internet can be access, any website, a server computer hosting a website. For, e.g., Gov – Government agencies, Edu – Educational institutions, org – Organizations (Nonprofit), mil – Military, com – commercial business. Next requirement is, of course, a website that displays the products or services for sale, some useful links, videos, audios, text, images and other useful, important information from both owner of the website and customers or users of the site.
Databases are also needed to store the data category wise on the website. E-Commerce provider offers you different types of products so that it maintains the details of one product like its features, price, benefits, limitations, image, etc. .at one section of the site and other product in some other section or location on the site. The customer can easily explore the required information, with just one click.
Most important is Technical support, which the entire web hosting provider needs to provide to run the website of the user on their server.
E-commerce web hosting has specific needs
A shopping cart: Not a shopping cart, actually e-commerce web hosting need electronic shopping cart which is an e-commerce tool or software, serves as a user interface for the customer to shop at online stores. It allows their customers/users to keep items in a “shopping basket,” and the cart remembers these items for a given period of time.
A merchant account: To run any business especially online business, you need a merchant account which is a type of bank account that allows a business to accept and process debit and credit card transactions. There are different types of merchant accounts. For instance, some merchant accounts are particularly designed to handle online purchases.
A payment gateway: An e-commerce application service provider authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks, and clicks. It also protects your credit card details by encrypting confidential information i.e. by passing information in a secure way between customers and merchant and between payment processor and merchant.
A dedicated IP for SSL: IP Address is also required, which is a numerical sequence that serves as an identifier for an Internet server. An intellectual property address is a series of four groups of numbers separated by dots. The first group contains some 1 and 255, and the other groups contain numbers between 0 and 255.
An SSL certificate: SSL encrypts information transferred across the Internet. SSL certificate installed on a website, makes you feel safe and secure for the information entered as it is only accessible by the organization that owns the site. SSL certificates provided by Certificate Authorities (CAs).