Ecommerce
Hosting Considerations
Ecommerce Hosting Considerations
Website hosting can be a complex undertaking. Determining how
much space you need, how much transfer, finding a reliable host,
and getting everything online is no simple task.
Add ecommerce to the mix and things become even more complex. This
article will deal with some of those additional complications to
finding a host for an online store. All of the same considerations
to finding general hosting can be applied to ecommerce hosting,
there are simply a few additional ones that need some attention.
Basics- Disk Space and Transfer
The core states of any kind of hosting, ecommerce or not, remain
space and transfer, or traffic. Generally measured in monthly increments,
your space and transfer will place a crucial role in determining
just what size plan you need. Ecommerce sites will, generally speaking,
require more space and transfer than an equivilant sized site without
ecommerce. This is due to the presence of the shopping cart upon
which the online storefront is based.
Shopping cart programs are installed to the account on which they
operate, requiring space, and their scripts for running the store
will require additional transfer to handle customers as they browse,
add items to their cart, and check out. Will there be a tremendous
amount of extra transfer required by the cart? That depends on how
many use the cart and on the cart itself. This is why its best to
start small and having a clear upgrade path to handle future popularity.
Prospective online merchants will generally have a good idea how
many products they'll be selling initially. This will vary wildly
from merchant to merchant, and many merchants don't put their entire
stocks online. It is wise to start with a considered selection of
products first, especially if you wish to initially keep your hosting
plan small and upgrade as the store prospers. Those with a great
deal of products need to be aware they will probably be facing a
bigger monthly fee for a larger hosting plan. Once the decision
is made regarding the products, attention can be turned to finding
a suitable shopping cart program to contain them.
Shopping Cart
The choice of shopping cart can be a personal one. Those entirely
new to ecommerce will probably not have any experience with any
kind of shopping cart software. There are a number of popular choices,
and most hosting companies will provide one, if not a variety, from
which you can choose. It is important to find a shopping cart that
suits the individual user, as attempting to change your shopping
down the road can be a long process that will, most likely, bring
your store down during a transitional period.
Don't immediately jump at the first cart a host offers. Ask if
they have demos and try them out. Be sure it's a program you can
learn and use, as it is the primary way you'll be doing your online
business. Even if you have a large business and have a design firm
setting up the cart, a rudimentary knowledge of the cart's processes
is highly recommended.
Learn as much about your prospective shopping cart software as
possible. Make sure it supports SSL, a common site security protocol
that will help keep your customer's credit card numbers safe when
ordering online. It will need to support your merchant account and
payment gateway. In many cases a host might bundle these services,
so compatibility isn't an issue.
If you secured your merchant services separately from hosting,
be sure they are compatible. Find out if the cart has a recommended
maximum product limit and, of course, try not to exceed it. The
store may slow down and perform poorly if there are too many products
in it.
Finally, make sure it will do everything you want it to do. Some
merchants sell services and downloadable items that don't conform
exactly to the order-product-ship-product flow. If your cart doesn't
support these features by default, there may be 3rd party add-ons
that will provide this functionality.
Miva Merchant is one such shopping cart with a very active 3rd
party developer community providing a wide range of add-ons, or
"modules" to extend the feature set of the original program.
The merchant will have to buy these add-ons and have them installed
on their own initiative, though, and the hosting company will not
be able to support them.
Reliability and Support
Perhaps of greatest importance is reliability in your chosen host.
Think in terms of a "brick and mortar" storefront. If
someone locks the front door during business hours, then no customers
can come in and nothing is sold. Similarly, if an online store is
down at any hour, no customers can come in and nothing is sold.
You want the most reliable hosting for such a mission-critical site.
Never just take the word of a hosting company's site in regards
to their uptime.
Do research and look for customer reviews of your prospective host.
Online merchants should always be willing to pay more for a reliable
hosting company with good uptime and support. A good rule of thumb
is to stay away from free or "bargain basement" hosts,
since support and uptime are usually the first things to suffer
with this kind of hosting.
Conclusions
Finding the right ecommerce hosting company requires a few additional
considerations. Decide on your products, your shopping cart, and
then shop for your hosting company. You will need more space and
transfer than an equivalent site, but start small with your product
selection and you can still save money on your hosting.
Find a shopping cart that's easy for you to use and understand,
as switching at a later date can result in downtime and a lot of
work transferring your products. Finally, make sure your host has
solid uptime, as an online store that's down isn't generating any
sales.
About the Author Copyright (C) 2005,
Eric Lester, Apollo Hosting, Inc. Mr. Lester has served for 4 years
as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com, www.apollohosting.com, and
previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring
knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo
Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting,
and web design services to a wide range of customers. Click for
more hosting articles: articles.apollohosting.com
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