The gift of the century – the Internet. A gift that somehow made the whole of the world a consumer-based market, which opens the door for anyone and everyone who comes and knocks. And if you are keeping your business away from the Internet, you are missing the sweet bite of the Internet pie.

 

Hosting services associated with the exchange of services, goods and investments online is what ecommerce web hosting is all about. With hundreds of ecommerce websites hitting the Internet everyday, their success probability is under question. So proper plan is needed in building the sites and proper care is to be taken while choosing the ecommerce web hosting plans.

 

Displaying products, their selection and inclusion into your shopping cart which displays the total payable amount, and finally paying off for those that you plan to buy – these are the three mainstays of ecommerce websites. And making their usage a breeze is to a large extent governed by how good your ecommerce web hosting plan is. From buying and selling books, CDs, computer accessories to web design software, a quality, reliable ecommerce web host can make all the difference.

 

As already stated, building an ecommerce site requires a little more consideration than a business site. As it is a much sensitive site-building project, what is most needed is a reliable ecommerce web-hosting provider that offers proper technical support. Setting up your shopping cart, payment gateway and SSL certificate would require much assistance from your host. A little bit of technical knowledge always proves helpful. But if you are not very handy with the technical complexities and you also don’t have an in-house web-developer, then it is advisable to opt for the ready-to-use shopping carts, offered by some ecommerce web hosting providers, where all you have to do is to add your product pictures and product descriptions. 

 

The first requirements of ecommerce web hosting would include a higher bandwidth and a disk space. After that what comes is uptime - the higher, the better. Don’t fall prey to those hosts who offer 100% uptime, as it is technically impossible. A lower uptime affects your web traffic, which in turn affects your business. Ecommerce web hosting providers differ in their policies. Some offer all that is needed for your ecommerce site and you are to set up everything on your own. While there are others who help you with the nitty-gritty.

Talking about the shopping carts, they are programs that allow you to inspect and select goods and services before you really opt for purchasing. Almost all ecommerce web-hosting providers offer more than one shopping cart. If you are reluctant to spare time and money, there are some easy-to-use and reliable open-source shopping cart systems, which you can customize as per your need. When you select your ecommerce web host make sure that you get an easy-to-use shopping cart.

 

One of the mainstays of ecommerce web hosting is the payment gateways and merchant accounts. A merchant account can be described as an “online banking account” and payment gateways are the “payment options”. You can even buy these services independent of your ecommerce web hosting plan. The compatibility of your payment gateways and shopping cart software is to be judged before you choose your ecommerce web hosting plan.

 

Credit card frauds are affecting the ecommerce websites a lot. So if you plan to capture credit card information on your own website instead of a third-party payment processor's, SSL is a necessity in your ecommerce web hosting plan. SSL encrypts your personal data making them inaccessible to others, which fosters secure online shopping. You can opt for a private SSL certificate or you can use your host's shared ones. But make sure that you have one.

And to make it easy for you to set up and run an ecommerce website, we at e2webhosts.com have an attractive ecommerce web hosting plan . With a bandwidth of 2000MB, unlimited emails accounts, open-source shopping carts like osCommerce and our own ready-to-use shopping cart, you can’t think for more.

 

But if you are not yet ready to go whole hog and sell your products through an ecommerce website, test the waters with our Catalog Hosting Plan. Its perfect if you have a large portfolio of products with several categories and sub-categories. In such cases, your website looks just like an ecommerce website selling products. However, the buying process is offline and customers are needed to send emails if they want to place orders. And when you are just ready, simply add the payment processing module or upgrade to our ecommerce website hosting plan with the free online store which comes with paypal integration. For a small additional amount, we can also integrate it with your credit card processing account.

 

Write to us if you would like to find out more about our ecommerce web hosting plan and associated services. Or try it out with our no-strings attached 30-day money back offer.

 

 

Alok Markan, AlokInternational.in