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E-commerce hosting specialist guides online retailers through the e-shop maze

1st June 2013 Print

UK web hosting provider and e-commerce hosting specialist, NuBlue, is offering guidance on different e-commerce application options, to steer online retailers through the maze of choices and allow anyone selling online to select the right application for their needs.

Lancaster-based NuBlue offers its clients four different e-commerce options. It is one of relatively few agencies to offer Magento hosting and support, with over 90% of their e-commerce clients using the Magento Community Edition – a free ‘open source’ version.

Magento Community Edition is ideal for sites selling thousands of products with variations. Such a scenario often requires complex integrations into systems such as external stock management solutions, as well as bespoke customisations to suite.

Magento is complicated, which is where NuBlue’s expertise comes in. It also requires more hosting resources than other systems, meaning a mid-high end VPS server or a Managed Dedicated Server are strongly recommended hosting solutions. It can be a challenging application to use, but its power and flexibility make it hugely attractive to the right kind of e-commerce seller. Hosting costs are higher than with other e-commerce applications, but the features it comes with as standard are phenomenal.

Prestashop is well suited to mid to large ecommerce websites. It is attractive to those who do not need to heavily customise or integrate into niche systems and is more manageable for companies that cannot access experienced php developers. It has a simple, but powerful, user-friendly interface and, whereas Magento has over 350 features, Prestashop still has over 310. The plug-in count runs at over 1000, compared to Magento’s 1500 plus.

Hosting costs for Prestashop e-commerce shops are lower than those of Magento and the speed of the application is faster on lower priced hosting options in comparison. A simple and clean default store template is another bonus.

Opencart is the e-commerce application to choose if you are a small business with little access to developer expertise. It can be installed simply and has a good variety of features. Add to this a very nice looking off-the-shelf template and it’s a great choice for start-up businesses and those with single products to sell. Hosting costs can also be kept low, as shared hosting is possible with this system.

Wordpress e-commerce could be an option of choice for those with an existing wordpress site and access to the developer who built it for them. Anyone only selling a handful of products can use this system and take payments using PayPal or SagePay, without the need for a separate e-commerce system. Once set up by the developer, it is relatively simple to use, though not as feature packed as other options.

NuBlue’s Technical Director, Tom Ashworth, says: “While we have published this guidance to different e-commerce systems, our hosting team are always on hand to answer any additional queries over the phone, to provide further insights in to which system would be best for an individual online retailer.

“If the choice to suit is Magento, we are one of the most experienced Magento hosts in the country and host a wide array of names ranging from small start ups to much larger brands. We should be the first port of call for anyone with a larger e-commerce store due to the expertise that we have gained with this application and its hosting requirements”.

Anyone wishing to find out more about e-shop hosting and development, visit nublue.co.uk.