E-Commerce Hosting FAQ

Welcome to the WestHost Frequently Asked Questions. Here you will find answers to the common questions asked about our services.

1. What is E-commerce?
2. What is a Shopping Cart?
3. What is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)?
4. How can I obtain my own SSL Certificate?
5. How can I accept credit cards on my site?
6. Terms, Conditions and Acceptable Use Policy

1. What is E-Commerce? - Top

E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet. In practice, this term and a newer term, e-business, are often used interchangeably. For online retail selling, the term e-tailing is sometimes used. Click here to read more about our eCommerce Hosting solution.

2. What is a Shopping Cart? - Top

On a website that sells products or services online, the shopping cart is a common metaphor (from the original grocery store shopping cart) for the catalog or other pages where a user reads and makes selections. Typically, the user checks off any products or services that are being ordered and when finished ordering, "Checks Out" by proceeding to a page where the various information such as billing and shipping information is collected and the order is placed and confirmed. The programming that provides a website with the ability to build a catalog, build its associated database and integrate pages into the website that provide users the ability to shop is known as shopping cart software.

A primary consideration when choosing shopping cart software is whether it will continue to serve your needs as your catalog and volume of orders grow. Our hosting plans include numerous shopping cart options. Here are a few of our most popular, listed in order of popularity - Magento, Zen Cart, osCommerce, Cube Cart, and Agora Cart. Click here for more details.

3. What is SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)? - Top

The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a commonly used protocol for managing the security of a message transmission on the Internet.

SSL is an integral part of most Web browsers (clients) and Web servers. If a website is on a server that supports SSL, SSL can be enabled and specific Web pages can be identified as requiring SSL access.

So in simpler terms, with an SSL Web Server Certificate on your website, any information sent to your Web server is encrypted or scrambled, making it impossible to intercept or steal. It also displays the identity of the website owner, and the name of the independent authority who verified that identity, such as GeoTrust.

WestHost has included a shared SSL Web server certificate on all of our plans. The shared SSL certificate that we use is just as secure as a privately owned SSL certificate; the only difference is that the shared SSL certificate address would not be branded to your website. If this is not important to you, using the shared SSL certificate is a very economical way to secure transmission of information on your website. If you do need a branded SSL address, then we can help you obtain your own SSL certificate.

Securing the transmission of information to your business holds obvious benefits, as does signifying that you are a trustworthy online organization. SSL Web Server Certificate protects against password and information interception, ensuring that your online relationship with your clients will be one based on trust.

4. How can I obtain my own SSL Certificate? - Top

WestHost offers a number of SSL certificate options from reputable and well-known providers. WestHost is a GeoTrust Hosting Partner, which allows us to extend a discounted price on SSL certificates to all of our clients.

For more information on our SSL certificates, please visit our SSL certificate information page. When you are ready to purchase your certificate, please order it through your control panel at cp.westhost.com. If your hosting plan qualifies for one or more free SSL certificates, you may order them at the same place and the price will show as zero.

We have chosen GeoTrust and Comodo as our SSL Certificate providers because we feel their certification practices are of the highest standards. We believe that excellent authentication and verification procedures are absolutely essential in order to ensure trust on the Internet.

5. How can I accept credit cards on my site? - Top

In order to accept credit cards you must have a merchant account. WestHost has partnered with PayQuake and E-onlinedata. These are affordable and reliable companies to provide you with your own merchant account and online processing system with little effort and minimal fees. If you have an existing merchant account through another company you can also use that to accept credit card payments on your website.

If you don't already have a merchant account please click here.

6. Terms, Conditions and Acceptable Use Policy - Top

Click Here.