I'd go with shared hosting. You can always move to VPS or dedicated server hosting once you get so many visitors that it slows down your website, but personally I started off with shared hosting. It's incredibly cheap, and if you take advantage of a coupon code, you can get hosting for as little as $0.10-0.15 per day. To design the page, I'd use Wordpress if you are just starting out...and most of the hosts I list bellow offer a VERY easy 1-click Wordpress installation...as well as a variety of e-commerce shopping carts :)
This would further include unlimited bandwidth, unlimited web space, unlimited databases (important), and unlimited emails as well as a great sitebuilder. Some like iPage also offer easy PEAR scripts, 1-click Wordpress installation, a free domain, and $450 in free goodies. I went with iPage, and already had to bug their support with questions. Both of them were file permission related, but they solved it within minutes. Their live-chat support is amazing and very quick, and the one time I had to call them, they picked up the phone within 2 minutes...very handy if you're new.
I also browsed the net for cheap hosting coupons, but found out a lot of them are expired or outdated. The most up-to-date coupons I found were on Twitter, probably because it's easier to update a Twitter stream than a website. If you go to Twitter, and search for WebHostingD, you'll have all the latest coupons...I went with his 50%OFF iPage offer, and don't regret it, you're essentially paying for 6mo, but get 12 months of hosting. Plus, there's some handy tutorial videos in that Twitter stream that helped me set up Wordpress very easily. iPage has been very reliable so far, no noticeable downtime, anytime money-back guarantee (in case I want to cancel), great support, and they're the cheapest RELIABLE host I found apart from Greenville. I've signed up for a second account with Greenville and also used WebHostingD's Twitter stream to get the coupon, he/she seems to literally update the coupons daily :)
http://twitter.com/#!/WebHostingD
Personally, if you're just starting out, I'd go with with either iPage (if you need the $450 bonus advertising credits), or Greenville (because they're the cheapest at only 9c/day). Both of them are super reliable, fast, and have great knowledgeable support. Whenever I start a new project, I just pick the cheapest host I can find (taking into consideration coupons)...you can always cancel and move to VPS or dedicated hosting should you really need it. Both those hosts also offer a super easy sitebuilder or 1-click Wordpress installation which is great for people just starting out. They also offer MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE...so you can just try it, and cancel at any time shouldn't you be happy. But I've been with both of them for years now, and have always been happy.
Anyway, make sure you check out that Twitter stream once you've selected a web host...the guy seems to update the offers daily, so you'll always get the best deals. Hope I was able to help you a bit :)
IMPORTANT: Finally, don't sign up with Hostgator's "only 1c in the first month offer" as their 25%OFF coupon is more valuable if you do the math...the other guy has it in his Twitter stream somewhere. Either way, iPage/Greenville are both equally as good and reliable, and cheaper than Hostgator even with a coupon. Also, do NOT go with Bluehost unless you want 3 domains, they charge over $4.5/mo, which is too expensive for shared hosting and a ripoff, even taking into consideration coupons.