What Should Be on Your List for E-Commerce Hosting
The vast majority of small online businesses cannot afford to host their websites on their own because the setup costs for software development, server hardware, bandwidth capacity and other types of expenses associated with maintenance are way beyond their means.
Web hosting companies provide alternatives enabling even the smallest of small online businesses to make their presence felt online cost effectively. However, an online business has special needs that an ordinary website has not so the hunt for the ideal e-commerce hosting company is not as easy as signing-up for those free hosting services.
There are ten things that should be on the list of any business hoping to find an appropriate e-commerce hosting provider:
1) Bandwidth. If you are an online business, you need to have a site that is easy to view plus can successfully capture information from your customers like credit card details are securely and rapidly as possible. What this means is that you need a host that can provide your business with some excess bandwidth. A good choice may be a hosting company that can provide one T-3 (45 mbps).
2) Server Setup. It is essential to choose a host that is able to provide the latest available technology servers, as well as, having the capacity to upgrade their machines regularly as new technology is developed.
3) Redundancy and Reliability. There will be problems as absolutely nothing works right at all times, so you need a hosting company that is able to provide you with the support you need quickly and efficiently. The hosting company should always be ready for the unexpected and have connectivity from more than one backbone provider, as well as, having redundant power back-ups.
4) Vicinity to Backbone. There are a number of hosting service providers have connectivity to larger Internet providers which run along a commercial telephone line to the larger company who, in turn, is connected to another internet provider along another telephone line. This is referred to as "upstream." However, the further "downstream" the hosting company is, the greater the chance of things going haywire as the data is passed off like a baton in a relay race with each connection "upstream."
The hosting company should be asked about how many hops they to the backbone. The term "hop" refers to each router location the internet traffic has to go through before reaching its destination. The ideal set-up is a hosting provider that is sitting on the backbone itself.
5) Disk Space. The rule of thumb is that you will hardly use as much as you think you need. A hosting package offering about 25MB of hard disk space is enough for about 500 typical web pages. The more important thing to ask the provider is the ability to be able to easily increase the disk space allocated to you as you grow.
6) Security. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption is the current standard of security with online transactions. This particular protocol encrypts the data over the internet. A digital certificate is required for verification of the merchant's identity which can be obtained from either Thawte or VeriSign. Among the two, the VeriSign certificate is supported by a larger number of the much older browsers.
7) Site Creation and Commerce Tools. Most E-Commerce web hosting companies provide easy-to-use software that can be used to build online catalogs which will enable you to maintain your storefront. This means that you need not use the services of an outside developer for your site. Some of the most preferred packages are:
1. ShopSite, by ICentral
2. Commerce Publisher, by iCat
3. SoftCart, by Mercantec
8) Back-End Integration. The best web hosts will offer integration assistance as many businesses will want to feed data to their own database systems (accounting, inventory, etc.). You will need to ask your provider about the integration service and scalability they offer.
9) Payment Processing. In order to accept online credit card payments, you will need to have payment processor services. Payment processing service handles credit card transactions between a merchant account and a Web business in real time. You will need to note that every business accepting credit card payments must have their own merchant account for their site and you may need to check you're your merchant bank. The payment processor you choose will depend on which shopping-cart solution you would opt to use. Some of the most popular payment processors are:
1. ICVerify
2. Segue Systems
3. Cybercash
10) Cost. Remember that cheapest is not always best especially since your site will be dealing with payment information and must have a certain level of security that is required. However, this does not mean that you should get the services of the most expensive e-commerce hosting service there is. Remember to look at every potential hosting company with regards to the above list and see which one can offer you the best rates.
About the Author:
Shane Stafford writes for WhoIsHostingThis, the website with the best web hosting reviews and hosting search around.
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