Most Sensible Online retailers make use of websites and blogs to only interact with existing Shoppers or to reach potential customers.Only a few see the Value of generating Unique Content , thus the Importance of Selecting a Good Ecommerce Hosting Provider takes a Back-Seat.If these very Small Business Owners, don’t properly evaluate their needs then they end up making wrong choices in the long run.
It is understandable that Hosting Servers cost a high price.But Hosting your eCommerce Store on a Cheap server is like Living in a neighbourhood that is cheap but not safe.
What will happen when you choose a Wrong Ecommerce Hosting Choice??
The sole reason of operating in the Ecommerce Markets is to Create Profits.
If for some reason you are under an impression that choosing any Hosting Provider wont really make any difference to your income, Think Again!
I have an list of few things that can Eat into your Profit Margins, when you don’t choose a Good Ecommerce Hosting Provider:
(1) Loss of Substantial Income:
The terrible moment that your site crashes, your potential or current customers wont be able to see your products or read your blog-posts. Let alone make any purchase!Whats even worse that if you run an Ecommerce Store, you will loose on valuable sales and income.
Did you know that very recently Amazon had a 40 minute outage which cost them about $5 million dollars? Agreed that your loss might not be as big, but it’s still a loss of Substantial Income .
(2) Negative Impact on your SEO Ranking:
Why do Ecommerce Store owners emphasize on content generation? Well the Ultimate goal of any Ecommerce Store should be to rank high in the Search Results so your customers can find you with ease. So what happens when your not so good e-commerce hosting provider crashes very regularly?
If your site is down repeatedly when the search engines are attempting to crawl, then your ranking will sink in no-time!
(3) Security & Mal-ware Attacks :
Of course there isn’t any foolproof method to keep your Ecommerce Store 100% Secure. However a good Ecommerce Hosting Solution can assist you to Back-up your data to a Distant server . It will also make it a lot easier to revive back the data if there’s ever a chance of a hack!
Good and Reliable Ecommerce Hosting provides you with a dedicated technical support, maintenance for security issues 24 hours a day.
How Must you Select a Good E-commerce Hosting Provider for your Store?
If you are experiencing issues with your existing provider or don’t have any what features to consider, here are some tips that can help:
(i) Price shouldn’t be your Sole Reason :
“You get what,You pay for” ! There are a truckload of good eCommerce Hosting Providers out there. Make sure you do your homework on top 10 choices for your budget.
Keep this in mind that as a Internet Business , you cannot afford to Experience any Extended Downtime. Please note that while choosing a Good Ecommerce Hosting Provider solely on Basis of Price is not worth the hassle and the headaches if your site goes down!
(ii) Understand the Different Hosting Options Available :
There are various web hosting options available such as Shared, VPS (Virtual Private Server), Dedicated and Managed Web hosting. It’s always good to make a well-informed discussion, so you choose the best option for your needs.
Basic shared web hosting is good if your Ecommerce site is generating only a small amount of traffic.
On the other hand, if you’re in the Commerce of selling products or generating a large amount of traffic, then choosing a dedicated or managed hosting provider is a far better choice. It will cost more upfront, but will definitely be more reliable in the long run. This will also ensure that the level and quality of technical support will be better too.
(iii) Dedicated Technical Support is Crucial:
Ecommerce means business 24X7. It doesn’t rest!Hosting providers usually claim they offer 24-7 support. Although this does not guarantee that you will receive fast and knowledgeable service. So the best bet is to test the response of the customer support staff yourself before committing to any long term hosting contract.
(iv) A Good Up-Time Track Record :
In particular, people want to know who has the least uptime, or if there is a company that has achieved 100% uptime. The reality is that 100% uptime, while the goal that every company sets its sights on, is a perfection unattainable. A world of factors usually conspire against a 100% Uptime.
Make sure the Ecommerce Hosting Provider you choose takes every step to ensure maximum uptime. While no web host can guarantee 100 percent uptime, it should offer at least a decent 99% uptime on average. You don’t want your potential clients bouncing off your site because of a Bad Up-time Track Record.
(v) Scalability & future Upgrades :
As soon as your Ecommerce Site starts to grow, your website will generate more and more traffic. Hence your Ecommerce Hosting Provider should be able to Upgrade and Scale to be able to accommodate this Growth in traffic.
There’s a famous quote: Just remember that there is no such thing as “unlimited resources”
Conclusion :
As they say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch and you get what you pay for.So it’s absolutely worth investing money into a Reliable & Good E-commerce Hosting Provider that is less prone to malware attacks and provides good quality services that prompt answers to your questions and concerns.
Kalpana Dogra
Digital Marketing & Communications , SEO and Social Media for Avactis
