Shopping cart and eCommerce hosting

[bignige]

Hi

We are a company looking to sell a range of around 1,000 products on the web.

I understand (am I correct) that there are packages/templates out there that are free as part of a web hosting package which will enable us to achieve the following:

1. Upload our products - descriptions and images
2. Take payment on the site - credit cards etc.
3. Add banners/text etc on the fly - via an admin panel

Can anyone confirm that the above is correct?

I have heard about Oscommerce and free templates which will achieve the above - is that correct?

We need a 'one-stop' user friendly solution - some people talk about 'building a website around the shopping cart' - what does that mean - we don't want to have the expense and work of paying someone to build an additional site!

Can anyone recommend a reliable supplier and indicate monthly costs?

Nigel

[Harry]

Hello Nigel to Webhosting UK community !
As you are looking to host an ecommerce website selling more then 1,000 products you have to go with higher hosting package like VPS or a dedicated server which can easily handle all incoming request and heavy traffic load for your website.
Yes, there are many shopping carts available using which you can build your online business portal. Oscommerce is one of them which is widely used and is most popular shopping cart. Using shopping carts you can add new products, their description, pricing details etc...
I will advice you to get dedicated SSL certificate which will help to build confidence of your customers to place order and trust you. You also need to get merchant account and will have to integrate required payment gateway for your online shop.
Make sure you go with manage hosting service provider so that you can concentrate more on your business rather then playing with your hosting account,

let me know your budget on hosting.. I will guide you to choose most suitable hosting package.

[Jack]

Originally Posted by bignige

Hi

We are a company looking to sell a range of around 1,000 products on the web.

I understand (am I correct) that there are packages/templates out there that are free as part of a web hosting package which will enable us to achieve the following:

1. Upload our products - descriptions and images
2. Take payment on the site - credit cards etc.
3. Add banners/text etc on the fly - via an admin panel

Can anyone confirm that the above is correct?

I have heard about Oscommerce and free templates which will achieve the above - is that correct?

We need a 'one-stop' user friendly solution - some people talk about 'building a website around the shopping cart' - what does that mean - we don't want to have the expense and work of paying someone to build an additional site!

Can anyone recommend a reliable supplier and indicate monthly costs?

Nigel

If you consider a Linux hosting package along with cPanel (control panel), you have the option to install variety of shopping carts at one click though Fantastico which is a part of cpanel. You have the option of Oscommerce, Cubecart and ZenCart.