Ecommerce Hosting : A Checklist Of Features


by Trevor Sadowski - Date: 2007-07-13 - Word Count: 396 Share This!

An essential step you just have to get right when starting an ecommerce business is to find reliable and effective ecommerce hosting.

Your will be putting your web site at a competitive disadvantage if you opt for sub standard ecommerce hosting services.

Your site will never be available 100% of the time due to essential maintenance, but there is no reason why you should expect less than 99% guaranteed uptime.

The ecommerce hosting shopping list:

• Look for 24/7 support with a fast response time, ideally using an instant messaging service such as that provided by Hostgator. I find this to be a very effective way of resolving issues with my sites, particularly when going through the initial set up phase.

• Does the hosting service take regular data backups? You need to be reassured that if the worst does happen that your ecommerce hosting service will be able to restore your web site in a short period of time.

• Look for flexibility in the ecommerce hosting packages offered. This is essential if your site grows quickly and you need to upgrade to a package that allows you more bandwidth and storage space etc. As your web site grows you will not have to look for alternative ecommerce hosting or pay an exhorbitant amount to change your package.

• Secure server facilities to take confidential information with and to reassure your customers. Any ecommerce hosting service worth its salt should be able to provide this, stay away from those that don't.

• Does the hosting provider offer support for the add on scripts and server side programming you or your web site developer will require? Most ecommerce hosting services offer more than enough support but you need to know if Windows or Linux servers are more to your advantage.

• A comprehensive web sites statistics package. The better hosts will have a range of reporting packages from which you can choose your favorite. If the host offers the cpanel control panel then you should have a good range to choose from.

• Fully featured accessories package that enables you to automate tasks such as your shopping cart facility and merchant account selection. This benefit can save you a lot of money in web site development costs.

Summary

Finding reliable ecommerce hosting is an essential step in the development of your online business. Take time to choose and obtain recommendations, it could save you a lot of anguish in the long run.

Related Tags: ecommerce, ecommerce merchant account, ecommerce design, ecommerce web site, ecommerce solution, ecommerce hosting

Trevor Sadowski runs a free information site where you can find how to guides and details of special offers on hosting and other essential components for your ecommerce web site.

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