Drupal Hosting for Ecommerce Websites: How to Run a Successful Online Store

WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal have been the most popular content management systems for some time now, and there’s little to suggest that another platform may scramble the order.

But what makes them stand head and shoulders above the hundreds of other apps in this segment?

This isn’t a question you can answer in a few short sentences, but if we have to single out one advantage all three CMSs have, we would probably say it’s down to their versatility.

WordPress isn’t just for blogs, Joomla can support a lot more than just business websites, and once you get to know Drupal well enough, only your imagination will be able to limit what you can build.

Indeed, Drupal is one of the most flexible CMS applications out there. It’s even powerful enough to support an ecommerce website.

Today, we’ll show you how to build an online shop, give you a few tips on making the most of Drupal’s features, and list a few considerations you need to keep in mind before you start.

How Do You Turn Drupal Into an Ecommerce Platform?

Dries Buytaert, Drupal’s original author, probably never imagined that his brainchild would be used to create online stores. After all, his initial intention was to build a messaging board app.

However, thanks to the modular architecture he used as Drupal’s basis, this is now not only possible.

Not surprisingly, ecommerce functionality is not included in the Drupal core, but it can be enabled with a module called Drupal Commerce.

Launched in 2011, Drupal Commerce is under active development by a community of contributors. At the center of it is a company called Centarro (formerly Commerce Guys), which started the project and turned it into a comprehensive ecommerce solution for Drupal users.

Build it right, and your Drupal Commerce online store can excel in several key aspects:

• Product management

Drupal Commerce supports various product types (physical goods, downloads, subscriptions), variations (sizes, colors, etc.), and attributes (weight, dimensions, etc.).

• Order management

The platform gives you complete control over the workflow from the moment the order is placed to the second the goods are delivered. Invoices and receipts can be generated automatically, and the entire process is controlled through Drupal’s administration pages.

• Shopping cart

An AJAX-enabled shopping cart ensures the shopping experience is smooth and follows a logical pattern. You have full control over the checkout flow and quite a few customization options to play with.

• Payments and tax

Drupal Commerce can work with a range of different payment gateways. Configure it correctly, and it can even calculate your taxes automatically.

• Shipping

Drupal Commerce can be integrated with the systems of several popular delivery companies. Using their APIs, it can automatically calculate shipping fees and costs.

• Sales, promotions, and discounts

Drupal Commerce supports discount coupons, sales, and promotion campaigns, which expands your revenue-generation options.

• Product search and filtering

Users who land on your online store often look for a specific product. Their ability to find it quickly ultimately determines whether or not they’ll make a purchase. With Drupal Commerce, you can implement advanced search and filtering functionality, ensuring people are never more than a couple of clicks away from what they’re looking for.

• Product reviews

In addition to providing customer feedback, product reviews influence conversion rates. They’re a part of any modern online store, and there’s no reason not to add them to your project. With Drupal Commerce, you can do that with relative ease.

In other words, Drupal Commerce can be the foundation for a feature-packed ecommerce website and a successful online business. It is a particularly appealing solution if your budget is limited.

The module is completely free and open-source. You install it on your Drupal site just like you would configure any other add-on.

On the surface, Drupal Commerce appears to be similar to two other open-source solutions – WooCommerce for WordPress and VirtueMart for Joomla. The goal of all three is the same – turning a regular CMS into an online store builder.

However, this is where the similarities end.

Is Drupal Suitable for My Ecommerce Project?

When you’re on the verge of starting your first-ever ecommerce website, you’ll consider all options, including Drupal Commerce, VirtueMart, WooCommerce, as well as many other self-hosted and SaaS-based solutions.

When is Drupal Commerce the right choice?

Do some research on the internet, and you’ll see that many people who have worked with Drupal Commerce describe it as “insanely powerful.” In light of this, you may think it should be your default choice. That’s not quite the case.

Other ecommerce applications’ design philosophy revolves around giving users an intuitive platform that is quick to get used to. Drupal Commerce’s approach is a little different. Its goal is to be a framework you build upon rather than a platform that does all the heavy lifting for you. 

Here’s an example.

Drupal Commerce is built on a modular architecture. Although its default functionality is relatively limited, you can expand it endlessly with modules and add-ons.

This is pretty standard for an ecommerce application, allowing you to add only the features you’re after. With other platforms, however, the extensions you install on the online store are usually plug-and-play. If you use Drupal Commerce, getting them to work requires a lot more manual work.

Depending on your goal, this may or may not involve writing custom code. In all cases, however, a deep understanding of the Drupal ecosystem and a lot of time are required to ensure everything is properly set up.

The upside is that deploying a feature opens plenty of opportunities to tailor the site behavior to your exact specifications, making Drupal Commerce extremely customizable. However, taking advantage of this flexibility requires familiarizing yourself with the platform and developing a certain level of technical skills. If you have no previous experience with Drupal, it could take a while to get everything going.

In other words, if you’re after a quick and simple deployment, Drupal Commerce probably isn’t for you. The same applies if your Drupal experience is limited.

However, if you’re creating a mid-size or large online store with numerous products, plenty of custom features, and impeccable security and performance even under heavy load, few other platforms give you as much flexibility.

All you need to do is take advantage of it.

Choosing the right Drupal Commerce modules is a good place to start.

Drupal Commerce Module Selection

Building an online store requires careful planning and a clear understanding of the steps needed to get everything going. You should be particularly meticulous when choosing the modules for your Drupal Commerce project.

The Drupal community has produced many add-ons, providing your store with a broad range of features. You can install indiscriminately, though. Every module you add must go through a thorough vetting process that should leave only the top-quality plugins that will give you the functionality you’re after without affecting the rest of the website. Here are a few things you should consider.

• Compatibility and requirements

You must ensure the plugins you install will work with the version of Drupal and Drupal Commerce you use. You must also review the module’s requirements and see if everything is in place before you proceed with its installation.

• Maintenance and support

Your site must be powered by high-quality software only, meaning the modules you installed must be actively maintained. This will ensure updates, security patches, and performance tweaks will be available to you, which is essential for ensuring your store is reliable and offers an excellent user experience.

• Effects on the site’s performance

The more modules you add to your Drupal Commerce store, the more processes your server will have to deal with. You must ensure the add-ons you install don’t slow your site down. Ideally, you’ll also have a staging environment where you can see the modules in action before rolling them out on your live site.

• User feedback and reviews

The best way to determine the quality of a module is to ask for other people’s opinions. Read online reviews of add-ons you’re thinking of installing. This will help you determine whether they deliver the functionality you’re after and also help you make the most of them.

• Security

It’s tricky to do a security audit of every module you’re thinking of installing on your online store. What you can do, however, is check the plugin’s history and the people who developed it. If you stumble upon any information on past security incidents, try to figure out how they were handled and what precautions were taken to ensure they don’t occur again.

These are the considerations you must consider when deciding whether a particular module fits your online store. But how do you decide what sort of add-ons to look for?

Several aspects of your online store operation could benefit from the use of Drupal Commerce modules. Let’s examine them in more detail.

Product management and description

If you’re going to convince customers to purchase from your online store, they’ll need to be able to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. And when they do, they should see current information on the different variations and their availability.

In other words, you need high-quality product pages. Many of the tools required to build them are already integrated into the Drupal Commerce core. Still, the open-source community has built more than a few add-ons that enhance the shopping experience by making attribute selection more interactive, providing users with bundling options, etc.

However, all this will amount to nothing if orders aren’t processed and fulfilled efficiently. To ensure they are, you can install modules like Commerce Stock that will help you keep track of your inventory and supplies.

Order management, payments, and shipping

You will likely use a gateway like PayPal or Stripe to facilitate transactions on your website. Modules for them are readily available, as are add-ons for less prominent payment processors. If you want to enable support for multiple currencies, the Commerce Currency Resolver is an excellent solution for that.

With it, customers can pay for their products quickly and securely, and you can also inform them how much delivery would cost them. First, you have to install the Commerce Shipping module and then see if there is an add-on for the delivery company of your choice. If there is, Drupal Commerce will automatically calculate delivery costs, letting users know exactly how much they owe before completing the order.

Speaking of orders, the Drupal Community has produced numerous modules that help you monitor your customers’ purchases. You can send emails to people who have abandoned their carts, enable recurring payments for subscriptions, and generate detailed sales and order reports.

Marketing and promotion

Drupal Commerce gives you plenty of options for providing users with the buying experience to help you stay one step ahead of the competition. Using modules, you can enable registered users to create wishlists, and they can receive notifications about product updates and promotions.

Speaking of promotions, Drupal Commerce modules can enable discount coupons and dynamic pricing, giving you extra flexibility and opening up opportunities for better sales performance.

Of course, the options don’t end here. The Drupal repository contains over 300 ecommerce-related modules, so you can explore and add many more features to your site. Make sure you take the time to think about what you want to have on your site and how you can enable it.

Another thing you shouldn’t rush is the choice of a hosting solution for your Drupal Commerce project.

Choosing the Right Hosting Solution for Your Drupal Commerce Online Store

As tempting as it is to start your new online store on a shared hosting account, you should probably discard the idea straightaway. The same goes for the pricey dedicated servers some hosting providers still offer. Even though they’re hailed as the most powerful hosting solution out there, they have far too many disadvantages that will inevitably become apparent once your site starts growing.

Your best bet is to choose a cloud-based managed VPS solution, and we’ll show you why right now.

• Reliability

A virtual server built on top of a proper cloud infrastructure maximizes your chances of achieving the best possible uptime for your site.

That’s because it doesn’t have a single point of failure. If you use a dedicated server, your site will only work as long as the physical machine hosting it is healthy. With a traditional VPS setup, you also have a single physical server responsible for keeping your virtual instance online.

A cloud-based virtual server is deployed on a network of servers (or nodes) working together to provide your website with the necessary hardware resources. Even if your server goes offline, any of the other machines in the cloud can take the load to avoid service disruption.

In other words, in the event of hardware failure, you don’t need to wait for someone to go and fix the machine before your site goes back online.

• Performance

Your site’s loading speeds depend heavily on the hardware resources included in your plan. However, the type of hardware powering it also plays a role.

Reputable hosts always try to keep their machines as up-to-date as possible. However, this is often trickier than it sounds. For example, imagine your Drupal Commerce store is on a dedicated server. Your host’s technicians can’t just replace outdated components and swap them for newer ones. At the very least, they’d need to move your site to a different server, which is time-consuming and often involves downtime.

By contrast, a hosting provider can easily upgrade servers in a cloud cluster one by one. While one node is being updated, the rest will take up the slack, meaning website owners and visitors will never notice the change. If your host does that frequently, it will give you the best possible speed at all times.

• Security

With a managed VPS service, your virtual server comes set up and ready to go. Your hosting provider’s technical experts take care of, among other things, critical security-related jobs like setting up an anti-malware scanner and configuring the firewall. They use their experience to do this, and they’re aware of all the latest trends in the cybersecurity industry, so they know how to change your server’s configuration to ensure maximum protection at all times.

On the one hand, this means you have more time to focus on building your online store. On the other hand, because you’re leaving the enormous responsibility of securing a server to the experts, the chances of something going wrong are much smaller.

• Scalability

The thing that makes cloud-based VPSs so great is the fact that they are an excellent long-term solution. You can start with a small server and add hardware resources as and when your site requires them.

A VPS with a couple of CPU cores and 2GB of RAM should be powerful enough to let you build your ecommerce site. When you launch it and start seeing a rising number of visitors, you can add more memory and processing power. You can also continuously monitor which resources are creating a bottleneck so you can implement only the upgrades you need.

You can also remove unused resources, giving you even greater flexibility. For example, if Black Friday is coming, you can add CPU cores and memory to ensure you’re prepared for the expected traffic spike. When the promo period is over, and you no longer need the extra resources, you can revert the server to its previous configuration. That way, you’ll never pay for processing power and operating memory you don’t need.

For ecommerce sites, that means faster checkouts, no downtime during traffic spikes, and a secure foundation to protect customer data.

ScalaHosting and Drupal Commerce

Every second of downtime costs sales. Every slow checkout risks an abandoned cart. Our managed VPS for Drupal Commerce is built to keep your store fast, secure, and always online — so you can focus on selling.

• Infrastructure & technology

Our managed virtual servers can be set up in one of thirteen data centers worldwide. This means you can position your server close to your target audience and ensure the site loads as quickly as possible for most visitors.

The virtual servers are deployed on an actual cloud infrastructure built by our experienced sysadmins and powered by hardware-based virtualization technology. The result is infinite scalability, total isolation, and reliable performance.

• SPanel

Our managed VPS solutions are equipped with SPanel – a proprietary server management platform designed and built by ScalaHosting.

All the tools you need to manage your server and the projects hosted on it are packaged in an intuitive point-and-click interface, which is an integral part of your managed VPS plan. You can use it as much as you want and create as many websites as you want without thinking about licensing fees.

• Daily offsite backups

Your SPanel managed VPS has an automated backup system that creates snapshots of your server and all the data hosted on it and stores it in a different data center. This ensures no information will be lost, even in a worst-case scenario.

Restoring data through SPanel is a two-click job, so if you react quickly, downtime will be minimal.

• Anytime unconditional money-back guarantee

If you decide at any point that you no longer need your ScalaHosting account, you can take advantage of our unique anytime money-back guarantee. With it, any proceeds you’ve paid for a hosting service you haven’t used can be refunded.

• Industry-leading support response time

We want to be the service provider you can rely on, so we do our best to ensure your communication with us is as painless as possible. Our technical support and customer care teams are available 24/7 via live chat and tickets, so you’re never more than a couple of clicks away from connecting to one of our experts.

Once you do get in touch, our policies dictate that your issues and questions must be dealt with urgency. That’s why the initial response to a new live chat comes within 30 seconds, and tickets are usually answered in 15 minutes or less.

• Free website migration

Moving an existing website from one provider to another is often a hassle. However, if you’re opening a new ScalaHosting account, you can leave it to us. Our migration specialists can move all the files, databases, and emails from the old server to your new VPS. They’ll test whether everything is working, and if it is, all you’ll need to do is change your domain’s nameservers so it points to your ScalaHosting VPS. In other words, the migration is done with no downtime and virtually no involvement on your end.

• A fully managed service

We use all our experience to provide our managed VPS users with a service that works out of the box. When you log into your virtual server for the first time, everything will be up and running and configured for the best possible performance and security.

If you want to learn more about our web hosting services, do not hesitate to contact our support and sales specialists, who will happily provide you with all the information you need.

Conclusion

Drupal may not be the first application that comes to mind when you think of an online store, and in fairness, other platforms are probably more newbie-friendly. However, if you know how to unlock its potential, you can transform it into one of the most powerful ecommerce solutions out there.

One thing that sets it apart from the rest of the applications in this sector is that it’s just as suitable for small businesses as it is for large, profitable ecommerce enterprises.

FAQ

Q: Can Drupal be used for ecommerce?

A: Yes, Drupal can be used to create an online store. To do it, you need to install a module called Drupal Commerce. It adds certain ecommerce functionality to Drupal, but to get a fully featured ecommerce platform, you need to set up additional add-ons created specifically for Drupal Commerce.

Q: Can I use shared hosting for an ecommerce website?

A: On its own, Drupal can work on a shared hosting plan. You can probably install Drupal Commerce, as well. However, any additional modules will really start to slow it down, and once the traffic picks up, it will most likely grind to a halt. Ideally, you’ll start building your ecommerce site using a more powerful solution like a managed VPS.

Q: Is Drupal free for commercial use?

A: Yes, Drupal is an open-source CMS, so you can use it free of charge regardless of whether you’re building a personal project or a new online business. As for the Drupal plugins, there are both free and paid add-ons available.