Web Hosting For Ecommerce

By Author: Elad Domb
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The ecommerce industry is a rapidly growing one. Even traditional businesses are seeing the value of transacting online and growing their revenues through online sales. Setting up an ecommerce site is not difficult but making sure that you have a site that really works for your business can be a bit more complex. There are many important factors to take into consideration to ensure that you have a successful ecommerce site. Partnering with the right web hosting company is a big part of that.

What Makes a Great eCommerce Website?

There are several key elements that make a website a successful ecommerce venture. The first is accessibility. Clients must be able to find your website. This means that the site must be optimized so that it ranks high on the various search engines. Once they find your website, they must be able to easily browse through it. This is something that is important not only in the design of the site but also with the web hosting company you choose. Find out if they have an uptime warranty. What you don't want is to have an amazing site that no one is accessing because your web hosting server ...
... is frequently down.

The second key element is security. You must make sure that your website is a safe environment in which to transact. Clients will be hesitant to buy from your online store if they feel that their personal or credit card information could be compromised in any way. A reputable webhosting company should have PCI compliant security measures in place. They should also be able to advise you on ways to constantly improve and maintain your ecommerce site security.

The third key element is reliability. Part of this is ensuring that your web hosting server has a 99 percent uptime. However, a more important aspect is delivering to clients in a way that either meets or exceeds their expectations. This involves having the products in stock, meeting delivery deadlines, honoring prices advertised on the website and providing customers with an excellent level of service. In a way, ecommerce is more competitive than normal retail sales.

The reason for this is that it takes little effort for customers to leave your store and find another one online in which to make their purchases. In the real world, customers will think twice about getting in their car and driving to another store as this requires effort. This is not so with ecommerce, so it's vital for your business success that you deliver an efficient and reliable service.

What Should you Look for in a Web Hosting Company?

Remember, ecommerce web hosting providers play a big role in terms of the accessibility and reliability of your website as discussed above. The efficiency of their server directly impacts your website. Make sure you are familiar with the types of hosting packages are available. Some companies only offer shared hosting. This means that the web hosting company maintains several different ecommerce sites on one server.

This is an affordable option for smaller ecommerce sites as long as the server is not over subscribed. Very large ecommerce sites will probably want to have dedicated server hosting. This is a server dedicated to a particular site. In general, this means that your site will have a higher level of reliability but it is the more expensive option. It is therefore important to consider the size and requirements of your ecommerce site before choosing between the two. If you are starting out small, it may be a better idea to start off with shared hosting with a hosting provider that has an option to upgrade to a dedicated hosting service as your site grows.

Your web hosting provider should not only be PCI-compliant but they should also be proactive in terms of ecommerce security. Data encryption, secure transaction platforms, integration with your merchant provider and having up-to-date security certificates are all important things to think about when looking at various hosting providers.
Perhaps one of the most important services offered by a hosting service provider is a supportive helpdesk. As a customer, you will want to have access to their expertise and ecommerce knowledge. A good helpdesk is one that is accessible by both telephone and email, responds quickly to you and can provide accurate answers and solutions to your queries.

When looking at web hosting service providers, take some time to research your options. A good way to do this is via an online search for ecommerce hosting companies. Generally, this will bring up independent reviews and comparisons of various companies, and provide you with a good basis from which to make your decision.
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