When you have items to sell on the Internet you will need an ecommerce web hosting service to take care of hosting your site. When choosing your hosting service you will want to make sure that you get everything you need not only to fit your needs today but to fit your needs as your business grow. Here we will try to help you think some things through and give you some ideas as to what companies will offer you outstanding service for a great value.
Main features that you want to be sure you get in your ecommerce web hosting are:
- Shopping cart – you need a place for your customers to gather products that they want to purchase for you and that will easily guide them through the check out process. One thing to look for when you are looking at ecommerce hosting is to be sure that the shopping cart offered will hold the number of products that you currently offer and possibly have room for growth. You will find that some offer very little room (like 10 or 15 products) which may be fine for the very small business but most ecommerce sites require more.
- Payment gateway and merchant account – People expect convenience and that means being able to pay for merchandise online in a secure fashion. A good ecommerce host will provide support for these programs. A payment gateway will secure the information so that you and your customers can know that your information is safe. A merchant account will enable the processing of the payments and if you get a good program it can really help streamline your business and make your life much easier.
- Marketing/Advertising – Everyone with something to sell online needs to get the word out somehow and there are some great advertising options that are truly affordable. Google AdWords and Yahoo! are both companies that offer great solutions to ecommerce users to help spread the word and drive visitors to your site. Look for an ecommerce host that offers vouchers or credit for these companies and others for advertising needs. There are many very affordable and reliable ecommerce web hosting companies that offer generous savings on advertising solutions.
- Free setup – Never pay for set up for ecommerce web hosting. These are fees that you really don’t need to incur because there are companies that are offering free set up and a low monthly price.
These are just a few of the things you need to get started with ecommerce web hosting. Think through all of your needs before signing up with any company because you want to be sure you get all you need.
Our picks for ecommerce web hosting:
FatCow – For a starting rate of $3.67 per month you get unlimited web space, unlimited transfer, SSL, cart, host unlimited web sites and an easy to use control panel.
JustHost – $3.45/month includes unlimited web space, free setup, unlimited traffic, ecommerce tools and a site builder.
GoDaddy – $3.82 per month includes 10 GB web space, free setup, 300 GB traffic, no hidden fees and 100 email accounts.