Ecommerce Hosting Considerations
Eric Lester
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: Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the
webmaster for
http://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.
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