technically speaking, a webshop is a specialized website. many web hosting companies, like strato in germany, offer webshop for clients who want to sell goods via the internet.

the advantage of pre-configured webshops is that there is considerably less effort in setting up a working sales system than with a regular website. webshops usually even offer integrated promotions tools to set up newsletters or rss feeds.

on the other hand there are drawbacks to take into account: preconfigured webshops are far less flexible as concerns both design and functionality of the sections they offer. function2form has set up a webshop for a client that didn't even allow for specification of subcategories of retail goods. so, whereas you could specificy a category "engine" you couldn't specify a subcategory "cylinder" as being part of "engine".

likewise, the graphical design of the pages was drastically restricted and there was no possibility to insert css directly.

in sum, if you just plan to set up an online sales without the demand for high flexibility you might decide for a proconfigured online shop. function2form will be of assistance with that, too.