Why is a dedicated IP needed for a ssl certificate?

[Elena]

I want to install a SSL certificate for my website and I bought a SSL certificate from you guys. But when I asked Technical Support to install it, they say that I need a dedicated IP address also. Why is this so?

[SharkSpace_Aaron]

In order to use the SSL feature your site must have it's own static (dedicated) IP address. A dedicated SSL certificate will get installed without any errors only if the website is assigned with a dedicated IP address.