Finding A Hosting Company for Ecommerce Web Hosting
Don’t be fascinated with the whole concept of ecommerce because it’s just a buzz word used to describe “the act of doing business”, but in this case, it means business capabilities online. The hype, I guess is to get your more excited about a new avenue to open commerce. This window has been opened for many years and while many have jumped on the bandwagon, there are many still that have not attempted at the chance to have an online presence as an opportunity to increase revenues. Ecommerce is a fantastic way to expand beyond the brick and mortar concept and is more tangible to have a combination of the two than a strictly internet presence front. Brick and mortar brings a more stable base for an ecommerce project, however, with a good plan, online alone can be very successful. But you will need a hosting company which is ecommere ready.
What does a Hosting Company need to offer?
If you already have an established business out of your home or in an establishment of some sort then your website should act as an extension to what you already have. It would be your electronic business card giving details of your business and what it does and easily direct people to information regarding your products and or services and how or where to buy them. It is also a good method for broadening the existence of your business and open it to new markets, both nationally and internationally.
A business without a physical brick and mortar type set up requires a little more ingenuity as physical location ads more allure where shoppers can see what you offer or personally confront whereas online, there is no way to see this upfront. This leads to high risk of who is actually offering true value. Online only means no overhead with regard to rent, miscellaneous expenses like electricity and possible employees as everything can be accomplished remotely, however, it does mean that you will pay more for credit card transactions (online transactions are considered high risk) and incur internet specific costs which are for the most part cheaper than that of a physical location, however, if you do enough transactions you might be able to achieve a cheaper discount rate, but never will you come as low as if you were processing the charge personally. Keep in mind that if you do have a physical brick and mortar business with a merchant account, you will need to obtain an internet specific merchant processor if you want to follow through with online transactions. They are two completely separate things and should be treated as such. Yes, this creates more responsibility and in some cases it can be an accounting nightmare, but it is a necessity of the industry. A professional hosting company is a must.
What you need to know about the hosting company to host an ecommerce website?
Lets start from your ecommerce site acting as an extension to your existing brick and mortar business. This site needs all data you can put on which includes company info, contact information, product or service description and other miscellaneous details that you normally provide to your potential clients. If you do not plan on selling anything from your website, than you do not need anything specific other than a place to park your web page, therefore any hosting company can do this.
Now we get technical. For you to be able to offer transactional capabilities for your online venture, you will need to make sure your web hosting provider can offer Secure Socket Layer (SSL) for the purpose of encrypting sensitive client data, pre-installed shopping cart (only if you need it), ability to upgrade to support growth and capable of providing service to the merchant provider as each merchant processor requires software (gateway) as a means to charge the customer and deposit the money into your account. These options are quite common these days and you will not run into difficulties finding a hosting company that can offer these services, however, if you need to use custom software or third party software you might need additional services to make the whole project come to fruition. This is your business, so deciding how you want to proceed will determine what specific services you will need, so your choice in the right hosting company can become clear.
You aren’t going to be interested in ecommerce if you don’t want to have a business and you are in business to make money. In saying this, your first choice should be a web host that offers you the best service and support above and beyond cost. The price of a web hosting account is or should be the least of your worries and always remember that you get what you pay for. Do not base the bulk of your decision on price. Yes, you should always have this in the back of your mind, but between, $1 and $100 per month there should not be any excuse of why you went with company A, who offers a package for $1 and company B who offers a similar package for $100. The simple reason is that the difference between investing in your business’ future and the possibility of failure rides all on the hosting company being able to keep up their end of the bargain. I am sure you would rather spend $75/month on hosting and have zero problems that going with a $5 package somewhere else that you can’t rely on. This is YOUR business and you need to give it the best so it can grow. Read the reviews, call any hosting companiy of your choice up with your questions and at least have one technically savvy person on your end to develop and maintain your online business. Be smart about it and don’t let pride get in the way. If you have no idea what you are doing, you should really get help where you need it or your business will suffer.
