Whether you’re one of those who is about to open his first online shop or are considering to change your e-commerce platform, here are some of the most popular e-Commerce platforms that would help you fulfill your needs in the best possible manner.

osCommerce

This free e-commerce platform is sufficient for setting up, running and managing an online store in a cost effective manner. Its multilingual, multicurrency and offline payments features together with support for shippable and downloadable products allows you to set-up virtually any type of e-store. osCommerce supports more than 14,000 live stores and a community base of over 2,00,000.

Magento

This free E-Commerce platform is available in two flavors: Enterprise Edition and Community Edition. The Enterprise Edition includes powerful tools to boost sales, including gift cards, store credits, members only sales, clubs, multi-store capability and top-notch support. On the other hand, the Community Edition is for expert developers and comes with no support or warranty.

Zen Cart

Zen Cart is an open source online store management system. It is PHP-based and makes use of MySQL database and HTML components for its functioning. It is The program is built by programmers and designers who understand the online selling process from start to finish. Zen Cart features all necessary tools required to build a successful online store.

X-Cart

X-cart is a commercial package with open-source code. X-Cart is fast, W3C-compliant and search engine friendly. It also falls within the budget of start-ups as well as established companies. Users opting for X-cart get all the professional support they expect when buying this software as.

VirtueMart

This open source software supports multiple languages and currencies. You can add unlimited number of products and product categories by making use of VirtueMart. Also, it enables users to search and rate your products.

PrestaShop

Launched in August 2007, this software is currently being used by nearly 25,000. PrestaShop makes use of the popular Smarty template engine, combined with an Ajax heavy back-end to offer a smooth functioning to its users. The best thing about PrestaShop is that it is very attractive and helps users create stores that are professional and elegant and it’s got a very active community for online support.

Spree

This free e-commerce platform is based on Ruby on Rails and features loads of great extensions on offer which you can use to tailor your site to your specific needs. It lets you modify shipping, tax, discounts and coupons to suit the requirements of your customers. This search engine friendly platform has Google Analytics built in it. It’s ideal for small and medium enterprises.

WordPress e-Commerce Plug-in

WordPress e-commerce plug-in is by far one of the most popular e-commerce plug-ins, having been downloaded over half a million times. This plug-in lets you customize your shop to suit your brand image. Also, it is integrated with PayPal and Google Checkout, the payment gateways that are used by a vast majority of customers.

Hope that these e-commerce platforms will enable you to set-up your e-store conveniently and quickly. Please provide your suggestions and feedback on the same.

osCommerce is the leading Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that enables online store owners to create, run and maintain their online store with minimal endeavor and no involvement of cost or fees.

Its powerful shipping settings inclusive of weight, price and destination based pricing, real-time quotes from FedEx, UPS etc. offer you the flexibility to provide your customers with customized pricing. Originally created by Harald Ponce de Leon, this software supports multilingual, multicurrency, offline payments along with support for shippable and downloadable products.

To create your osCommerce website on LimeDomains, all you have to do is register yourself with us. As soon as you register, our single click applications will enable you to set up your osCommerce website is just a few minutes.

The steps to setup your website on LimeDomains using osCommerce are listed as below:

Step 1: In the ‘Hosting Management’ section, click on ‘Install an Application’. Following screen will be displayed:

Step 2: Select osCommerce from the menu and then click on ‘Install Now’. Enter the exact URL in the ‘Installation Path’ at which you want to access your application. Under ‘Show Advanced Details, you get a list of pre filled fields which you can customize as per your requirements.

Step 3: Once you click on ‘Finish’, it is recommended to save your account details and change your admin password to maintain privacy of your account. As soon as you click on the “Installation URL” provided on the application management page, your osCommerce login page will appear. Enter your user name and password and Click on ‘Log in’. The following screen will be displayed.

Your osCommerce is successfully installed. You can get started now…

Get started today!

Even though recession gripped the entire economy in its clutches, one sector that still showed an increasing trend was e-commerce. In US alone, the E-Commerce sales in Q4 2009, went up by3% as reported by comScore . It is thus evident that online retail spending continues to gain share of consumers’ wallets.

So, if you are one of those who are planning to set-up an e-commerce store, here are certain points that you must keep in mind.

Setting up an E-commerce store

These are some of the steps involved in getting your store up and running.

• Domain name is the first thing you’ll need for your online store. You may choose a domain name that reflects the essence of your business and best reflects your product or service.

• Once, you finalize a domain name, you may ensure that your e-commerce store has the support of a reliable e-commerce web hosting service, which will make your e-commerce website accessible to your target audiences round the clock. It will also help your business by listing its products and services, handling shopping carts, and tracking customer orders.

• Selecting shopping cart software is extremely important while setting up your e-commerce business. You may consider the number of credit card processors and shipping services, the shopping cart supports. You may also ensure that it is easy to add products to your shopping cart so that users have a great shopping experience.

• Setting up payments is yet another essential requirement of an online store. For this you need a merchant account that would help you accept online payments. Now there has to be some link that hooks your merchant account with that of your customer’s credit card. This link is an online processor called payment gateway. It also helps in ratification of information, authorization of credit cards etc.

• Yet another integral component of an e-commerce site is Secure Socket layer (SSL). If your website has SSL certificate then the message reflected to the customers is that the site they have used for online shopping & input their credit card information is reliable, and that the transactions they’ve made are quite secure.

Management of your E-commerce store

You can easily manage your e-commerce store with the help of online store management software. Online store management software would help you in managing & tracking the orders placed by your customers via payment authorization.

You can also keep a constant vigil on the progress of your web store by integrating in-built reporting tools & Google Analytics into your website. This will help your website get a clear picture of the website traffic &  store sales. Using these tools, you can view best selling products by category in your store; most used keywords, top-rated customers, geography-specific website traffic etc.

Now, since you are aware of the steps for setting-up and managing your e-commerce store, you know that selecting the right web hosting service provider who is able to provide you with all the above mentioned services would be the key to your success.

We, at LimeDomains, provide web hosting, domain name registration and domain transfer services. We also help you build your own online store with our open source ecommerce applications, osCommerce and Zencart. You can install these applications and get started with selling your products/services directly from you site, processing of payments, building & managing shopping carts, customizing your store with help from a robust pool of support resources etc.

Get started now!

Ecommerce web hosting…..for your virtual store front

With gazillions of web hosting providers already on the Web each saying ‘Me Too’, you need to be careful with your decision since you cannot resort to age old ‘trial & error’ approach as it can pull down your online store in minutes. Don’t rush into any decision of choosing Ecommerce web hosting solution!

Ecommerce business involves purchase and sale of products on electronic systems or computer networks. Hence, the selection of Ecommerce web hosting provider must be done only after you have cross checked the below listed key elements.

Reliability & Speed

The reliability of server holds great significance since your potential customers can get horrified at the mere thought of making online payments & your website going down. As a result, they can skip your online store & shop somewhere else. At LimeDomains, we make sure that if any contingency situation arises & one server goes down, there is another one to take over and suffice for your website needs effectively.

Compatibility with existing hardware & software

Setting up an ecommerce store is not a child’s game. So, you must try to keep it as simple as possible for your potential customers. Every component, be it a payment gateway or a shopping cart, that you integrate through the ecommerce solution provided by your web host must have adequate compatibility with your current hardware and software components.

Multiple Payment Systems

In our day-to-day busy lives, consumers prefer to shop and make payments online through different payment modes such as credit cards, PayPal etc. If you plan to set up an ecommerce store, make sure that the ecommerce solution offered by your provider supports varied payment options so that your store can address the demands of a wide range of customers across the world. This will optimize your profits to a greater extent. LimeDomains supports multiple payment modes so you can accept payments made by your customers via any means.

APIs

Management of finances and inventories of your online store is a bit tedious task, which can be dealt conveniently provided your web host gives you an appropriate & flexible ecommerce solution. Developers write codes using these APIs, and it facilitates linking of ecommerce server and legacy system.

Support to Current Data

Look for an ecommerce solution that enables you to transfer data from one environment to another. This becomes significant especially in case of managing big online shops, where manual transferring of huge amounts of data from one system to another, is quite a complex and costly affair.

Shopping Cart

It’s an integral part of any ecommerce solution as it facilitates your potential customers to have a delightful browsing experience through your ecommerce store, and make purchase decisions.

Now that you have almost all the required information on what key tenets to look for while choosing an Ecommerce Hosting Solution, you can decide when to say ‘Yes’ to any hosting solution for your ecommerce store.

We, at LimeDomains, are there to help you out setting your ecommerce store on the Web using applications such as osCommerce and Zencart. We look forward to your ‘Yes’ for our Ecommerce solution.

Start monetizing your website by selling products and services online today!
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