Usually shared hosting is chosen by newer or smaller online businesses through one of the many popular online hosting providers, such as Just Host or FatCow. For ecommerce companies shared and dedicated hosting providers offer a range of options, who in turn save money on software licensing, backup systems, bandwidth, and the hardware required for self-hosting.
What to Look For in an ECommerce Business Web Hosting Service Provider?
It is important to choose a compatible web hosting solution due to the reason that moving an existing online business to a new host can be quite complicated.
So before selecting an ecommerce host, you should carefully consider the following things:
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The amount of bandwidth/data transfer that is included in the hosting package.
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Reliability, speed, and at least 99% uptime should be offered in web hosting package.
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You should check disk space.
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Features and facilities that are allowed by the web hosting package, means that you should know your PHP, Perl, FTP, MySQL and other requirements and ask the provider if they allow these features within their hosting package.
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You should check that whether they are offering control panel or content management access for updates, modifications, etc.
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You should see that whether there is availability of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), to encrypt online payment processing data.
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You should look for the shopping Cart, hosting and payment gateway compatibility.
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You should see that whether the web host is offering you 24/7 technical support (including holidays) by email, chat and telephone for maximum reliability.
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You should check that whether the web hosting company has included email addresses, mail forwarding, and other critical online business tools in their package.
It is difficult but not impossible to find out the perfect ecommerce web host. It is not necessary that if a web host is more expensive then it is always better; you have to carefully weigh the features, benefits, limitations and price of each option before making a selection.