What is E-Commerce Web Hosting?

If your web site will be used to sell products or services online then you are participating in e-commerce. There are a few essentials that you would need in order to sell online. First and foremost, you will need some type of online shopping cart interface or software. An online shopping cart collects products chosen by your visitors into a virtual basket or cart that can later be itemized and totaled during checkout. The more advanced shopping carts do much more than just that like reporting, layout options, easy integrations, etc.

You will also need a method to accept payments from customers. The least expensive method to accept payments online is usually through your own merchant account from a credit card processing company. There are other online payment providers that are a little more expensive, but may have easier approval processes like PayPal and Google Checkout and are online business friendly.

Good e-commerce web hosting companies provide you with free shopping cart software and easy setup methods. A plus is shopping cart software that easily integrates with many different payment providers so you have more options to choose what method you will use to accept payments. For instance, if you go the route of your own merchant account (the best, least expensive route), you will also need a payment gateway to tie in your shopping cart to your payment processor. One of the most popular is Authorize.Net and it is compatible with hundreds of shopping carts and payment processing companies.

Many web hosting providers will steer you in the direction of a credit card processing company they have a business relationship with. This can provide an easier setup because they are already familiar with the integration. However, you may not always get the best deal on the processing. You should certainly shop around. As stated above, most shopping carts are compatible with Authorize.Net and most credit card processing companies are compatible with Authorize.Net as well. This simply means you have the liberty with most web hosting providers to find your best deal on a merchant account and still not have any problems integrating that account with their services.