If you have products that you want to sell online then you need ecommerce web hosting. This is a highly competitive industry so there are incredible deals where you can get all of the features you need in your hosting for a great value. The way to make a choice is to know exactly what you want and need in your web hosting service before you shop around. This way you can find the company that matches what you specifically need to help you succeed.
Here we will list a few things you will definitely want to have for ecommerce hosting:
- SSL – Secure Sockets Layer. This is a vital part of your hosting because when you are doing transactions on the Internet you want to insure that you keep your customers information as well as your own private. With identity fraud on the rise more people are very concerned about their security and if you take the right precautions you and your customers can rest assured that the information is safe.
- Shopping cart – Every business that sells products needs a shopping cart program. This is just as simple as it sounds. When you go to the store you can put your goods for purchase in a cart until you are ready to check out. Online it is no different and you will want to offer this to your customers.
- Marketing credits – Make sure that the hosting you choose offers advertising credits when you sign up with them. Many companies offer at least $25 vouchers for companies like Google AdWords or Yahoo! Marketing.
- Catalog – This is where you will showcase your products and have them in a database like a catalog for your customers to browse through and select items. You want a program that is easy to upload your product information into. You will also want to make sure that the program has the ability to hold all of your products. That may sound ridiculous but you will find that most of these hosting services will offer a product catalog but they may only hold 10 to 15 items. For most businesses this is not enough. Be sure to get what you need.
- Support – When you have a business you need to surround yourself with the best support possible. Not only do you need technical support but you need to look at the support any hosting service can give you in all areas that you are wanting to succeed in. For ecommerce the hosting should have hosting support 24/7 and they should be available by more than one method such as email, live chat and more.
