Ecommerce Site Hosting

How to get the best deal on your ecommerce site hosting.

Assessing a Comprehensive Package

How do you evaluate the comprehensive package that many companies offer for ecommerce site hosting? They certainly look attractive — free software to build your online store and manage the orders, a payment gateway for realtime credit card processing, a merchant account and site promotion. Should you go for such a solution? These are the advantages:

 

 

• no hassle in integrating shopping cart, payment gateway and merchant account: it's all done for you.

• speed: the software is easy to use, and you can start designing straight away.

• support: the hosting company will know their system and can help accordingly.

Unfortunately, the drawbacks are equally clear:

• hosting company gets their cut somewhere, and that usually means commissions to card processing companies: you may not be getting the best deal.

• design inflexibility: the software may limit the appearance of your store, and/or how you process the orders.

• migrating to another host can be difficult: you may be locked into yearly contracts, or have to rebuild from scratch if you outgrow the site or your hosting company proves unsatisfactory.

• you're tied to the fortunes of the hosting company: if they suddenly go out of business so may you.

Doing your Sums

Our e-book provides the resources to weigh the pros and cons of ecommerce web hosting by this route. First off, you'll need some benchmarks, which means knowing the sort of card processing charges you'd face elsewhere. Consult our pages on merchant account providers, and investigate the references listed on the resource pages. You must also ensure that the storefront software will actually build the site you want. Examine the sample sites or demos available on the hosting company site. Ask for a client list if necessary, and double check that the order processing covers all you need: shipping, tax, order tracking, inventory management, customer feedback, integration with your accounting system.

Server

A key concern is the server provided by the hosting company. Ideally you'll want:

• competitive prices (but not too competitive: you get what you pay for).

• good reputation: look for awards and genuine testimonials.

• uptime of 99.9% or better.

• 7/24 email and telephone support.

• SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to provide security for payment transactions.

• adequate security measures.

• use of a digital certificate: generally Verisign or Thawte.

• appropriate operating system (NT/Windows 2000, Frontpage, ColdFusion, Unix).

• direct feed of website data into accounting and inventory databases.

• Adequate disk space, with opportunity to add more.

• sufficient bandwidth, with affordable increases.

• no more than 10 accounts on same server.

• online help: tutorial, manuals, control panel.

• detailed traffic statistics.

• regular site backup, preferably daily.

• opportunity to upgrade package, preferably to dedicated server.

• T3 connection (with no more than 30% average utilization).

• close proximity to backbone (not many upstream providers).

• redundant connections (to minimize bottlenecks).

• backup power supplies, usually diesel generators.

• guarantees, e.g. free monthly trial.

• fast and helpful response to detailed pre-contract questions.

Consult the directories of hosting companies to understand what these 22 items mean in practice.

Putting It Together

Generally, companies takes this route into ecommerce when they:

• wish to test the market without great delay or expense.

• lack expertise to master all the elements of ecommerce.

• enjoy considerable latitude with profit margins.

Our resources page lists a) the better-known companies providing all-in ecommerce site hosting, and b) directories of hosting companies providing ecommerce support.

Our e-book provides further listings of companies providing ecommerce site hosting.

Company  | Disclaimer  | Email

Copyright © 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 LitLangs All Rights Reserved