eCommerce Web Hosting

The name of eCommerce has evolved as a shortening of electronic commerce. The commerce as such evolved with the eighties of the 20th century when the university network has developed into public and accessible internet with the first web browser. The notion of online shopping was created in 1979, but the real shopping began only in 2000.
e-commerce is not only simple online shopping when the store sell the goods and customers buy them by placing and order and making the payment or scheduling for later. electronic commerce is also the selling of services, making online transactions, participating in auctions etc. All the traditional commerce aspects were taken to the internet and it became a huge impact to modern economy.
In most cases the e-commerce is referred to internet shops and service providers. One of the internet services is web hosting service, as it is ordered online, paid using online payment methods, the support services are using online tools. All the financial statements and invoices are also issued and managed online. This makes the procedures much faster and easier.

eCommerce is one of the biggest business types together with production of goods, agriculture, services and sales. There are lots of eCommerce products and procedures which require the reliable hosting services.

What is eCommerce Hosting

The eCommerce business means that all the assets and information is stored online. In order to understand the eCommerce hosting we should explain all the main procedures of the online business. Let’s take an online shop which sells mobile phones and devices.
Website. The main marketplace of the company is a website which contains multiple pictures of the products and textual descriptions of goods placed in specific catalogue. All information need to be stored in the server which is reliable and trustworthy. This is the most important feature of eCommerce hosting.
Email. The online shop distributes lots of information via email. The email is used for the following purposes:

• User registration procedures.

• Order confirmation and invoicing.

• Support issues.

• Email marketing in the form of newsletter and special offers.

• Partnership and advertising issues.

• Employee work and personal communication.

The email is an important management tool which also needs to be hosted in a reliable server with the handy email services and applications for mass mailing and email marketing solutions.
Accounting. The website should be connected to a specific accounting application which is automatically generating the invoices and sending one copy to a customer and another to the accountant interface for further counting. The online accounting application is also an important part of eCommerce hosting.
CRM. The email is not the most effective solution for the sales driven company, as contacts, agreements are getting lost or not done on time. A simple CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system can solve lots of problems. Sometimes it is hosted at the service provider side, but also can be used an open source and thus free CRM solution which must be hosted in the same server as other eCommerce applications.
Intranet. Employee communication and know-how must not be lost in lots of personal computers of marketing managers. They must be kept online, discussed and easily managed. All the presentations, instructions, tutorials, guidelines, calling schemes, pricelists, promotion materials, ads and plans must find their place in internal communication application which is also hosted in the same server with email, CRM and Website.

There are so many applications for eCommerce hosting which contains some secret data, therefore it is highly recommended to order secure web hosting in the first place.

eCommerce Hosting vs. Hosting

eCommerce hosting usually requires much more than regular hosting for small websites. What are the main diferences? Why eCommerce hosting is so unique?

In the first place the eCommerce solutions need special security addons – SSL certificates, which protect the data in a secure and trusted way. The users of online shop feel much more assured when SSL certificate is installed. Any financial operation need advanced security measures, therefore online shops uses expensive and advanced-featured SSL certificates (cheap ones and simple can be used in regular hosting, but for email or internal issues).

The eCommerce hosting unites more different applications for business management that regular hosting. eCommerce needs such applications as CRM, project management, online accounting, email marketing applications. Regular corporate hosting usually needs just website hosting and email management solutions.

eCommerce hosting works with specific e-comm CMS (content management systems) such as Magento, PrestaShop, ZenCart, osCommerce, WPCommerce and many others. They can also manage the content of the website, therefore they can be called e-commerce content management systems whose task is managing catalogue, goods descriptions, legal information, promotions and news, corporate blog etc.

eCommerce is more complicated than online shop as services are mostly online tools which have specific requirements for applications and hosting resources. For example one of the most popular e-commerce service is photo printing online where users can add their photos, manage them, store them for public usage and order the prints in the nearest photo lab. This require huge server resources as pictures must be stored without reducing them on server. There are even more complicated services which cannot be done with the professionally made or open source applications, so unique applications are created.

One of the main differences between regular hosting and eCommerce hosting is the payment gateway feature. Payment gateway is the special application which unites different payment options and allow end user to use one of favorite e-baning solutions. The extra security is needed for all the financial procedures. The regular website usually do not have any online order systems, thus needs less hosting requirements and solutions.

eCommerce Hosting in Host1Plus

eCommerce hosting require the specific application which can be installed on demand. Host1Plus is a perfect hosting company for any e-comm project because:

• Host1Plus provides the wide rage of hosting services which are flexible and can be expanded without turning off the online project.

• Host1Plus prepared a special Cloud VPS pricing plan for one of the most popular e-commerce applications in the World – Megento. This plan is suitable for other e-comm software such as PrestaShop, osCommerce, ZenCart and others.

• Host1Plus can offer an optimal price for a SSL certificate and help installing it. The security measures must be applied even though the cloud hosting technologies are considered as safe ones.

• Host1Plus provides unlimited bandwidth hosting for any cloud hosting plan and web hosting plans. This allows the guaranteed 99.9% uptime which is so important for any e-commerce project.

• Host1Plus provides all needed email management applications and enough space for unlimited size inboxes. The POP/IMAP email can also be checked and used online using free webmail applications. The emails are easy to set up as the main concern and attention must be paid to the eCommerce solutions.

• Host1Plus’ Customer support will be delighted to help every customer with the regular e-commerce hosting issues. The support is available in English, Russian and Lithuanian via live chat, support center, forum and US and UK toll-free numbers.

Get Started With eCommerce Hosting

As you may have already seen, Host1Plus is the best e-commerce hosting partner. If you have decided to start working with us, just follow these simple steps:

• Step 1. Choose cloud VPS hosting plan. We have set a special e-Commerce plan and associated it with the most popular online shopping system Magento.

• Step 2. Choose the operational system and main application. If you have chosen Magento, please look for Jumbox 1.6.1 + magento x64 virtualization in OS list. If other platform, please choose any OS or at least OS with control panel which provides the easy installation tools of some free open source eCommerce solutions.

• Step 3. Add additional parameters if needed. Additional RAM, CPU, Network Speed and disk space can be added.

• Step 4. Purchase SSL certificate. Please contact our support center for instructions, how SSL certificate can be purchased and what are the prices. The purchase may take a few work days.

Now you can start launching your eCommerce website. If any problems occur, please contact our support.

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