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Choosing the Right E-Commerce Hosting Provider and Plans: Basics
E-Commerce is a technology that allows people to purchase goods over the Internet. Since its beginnings, companies have been able to tap into markets that they would not have normally been able to due to geographical constraints. Now these companies are able to distribute information about their company and products, take orders, build customer databases and make business-to-business or business-to-consumer transactions with ease.
To accept and fulfill orders online, E-Commerce companies need a website, customers who can pay through credit card, links to financial institutions to clear the payments, and encryption technology that will guarantee the safety of the financial profiles of the consumers.
Of all the requirements to run an E-Commerce business, perhaps the most crucial component is operating the server the website is hosted on. Most small businesses do not have the means to start and maintain their own severs. Thus they have their web sites hosted by companies who specialize in hosting support and solutions. The challenge however, is in choosing the right hosting provider. The following are the basic considerations each E-Commerce company should reflect on before making this important decision.
Speed
Starting E-commerce businesses need to understand that efficiency is everything. Part of being efficient is being able to guarantee to their consumers that their orders will be fulfilled as quickly as possible. Files must be transferred to and from the host servers quickly. The type of connection a web host uses is a reflection of how reliable the service is.
Uptime
Naturally, customers can't place orders on your web site if the host servers are down. This can occur for a variety of reasons, such as power outages, equipment failures, or less common occurrences such as fires or floods. A web host should also be able to guarantee a minimum of 99.9 percent uptime. This is an industry standard and any host that falls below 99.9 percent is not worth continuing a conversation with.
Data Transfer
Otherwise known as Data Transfer, this refers to the amount of bytes transferred from a website to the customers browsing the website. E-Commerce companies should make a personal assessment of how much traffic or bandwidth their websites consume and allow extra capacity for spikes in traffic. If you exceed your bandwidth limit, then customers can't browse your site at all, so make sure you check how much traffic is allowed by their plan or how much bandwidth the host can provide. Companies should note that as they expand their products and services and their websites gain popularity, their bandwidth consumption. This is a good problem to have, but make sure your host can handle the increased load.
Room
No matter how fast the connection of the E-Commerce businesses is, if the host has assigned too many clients to the server, the websites slow down simply because the system gets overloaded. When shopping for host providers, companies need to inquire how many other clients will be sharing the server with them. The rule of thumb is, the fewer the clients that share a server, the better.
Server and Infrastructure
E-Commerce companies should see if the web host they are eyeing to subscribe to uses state of the art hardware and infrastructure. It is preferable if the host uses multi-processor server machines. The ideal host should also back their hard drives on a daily basis as well as have a power supply onsite that will not be interrupted—this means that a generator is always on stand by.
Support
When choosing a plan, make sure the host provider will give 24/7 technical support. It is very important that the company would be able to rely on the provider's expertise in troubleshooting the problem. Another consideration would be the quality of support. It is not enough that a host simply provide round the clock coverage. E-Commerce companies should also check that they can count on competent and skilled technicians if the need arises. Response time is also important, whether it be through email or phone. Companies should secure guarantees from their hosts that they will be able to get help within a specific time frame from when the request for assistance is placed.
These are just the basic requirements an E-Commerce company should look into when choosing a host provider and a package. However with the current demands of getting quality hosting, securing all that was mentioned above should not be uncommon. The factors listed above should be guaranteed, regardless of the package the web host is offering.