Ecommerce web hosting can be described as any hosting service that supports the online sale of your merchandise. While many companies will tell you that they offer ecommerce web hosting it is a good idea to shop around as much as possible and make sure you are getting the right features for your business for a price that your business can afford to pay.
The first step in ecommerce web hosting is to choose a great domain name. Some important things to remember with domain names is that:
- The domain name should reflect the business you have or the products you sell. It should be relevant for best success. There are exceptions to this of course, we all know some of them but a good rule of thumb is that if you want the customer to remember your name, associate it with your products or something memorable.
- Keep it short, sweet and to the point. The shorter the domain name, the easier it is to remember. Keep in mind that domain names are really just a mask for a string of numbers that would be harder to remember. Make the best of this ability but if your website is weselleverythingfromatoz.com the customer will likely forget it. And be careful of using creative spelling. If it is easy to remember and catchy that is great but you really need to pick something practical.
- Look into domain name extensions. Not everything has to be a .com address to be memorable and credible.
The next step is to make sure that your ecommerce web host provides you with the following features (and possibly others depending on your business type):
- SSL or Secure Sockets Layer. This provides data encryption and a level of security that you need for your customers and your information.
- Shopping carts – Online shopping is no different than going to WalMart. You shop and add things to your cart. It is important to get the best shopping cart software and support as possible so that you can customize it to your business and easily integrate it into your site.
- Advertising credits. These may not seem like much but the competition in ecommerce hosting is great and if you want to succeed with an online business you will need to do some online advertising through companies such as Google AdWords or Yahoo!. There are many hosting services that will offer credits as well as the features you need so make sure you are on the lookout for great credit amounts. We have seen some companies give up to $100 in credit. This is a great jump start to your online marketing solutions.
- Product catalog. Seems like a simple thing, just add your products and everyone will see them but this is like the shopping cart. You need to make sure you can customize it and you need to make sure that it is easy to import your product lists and product descriptions. If you have your product information in a database already there are programs that will allow you to just upload the information you have which means you save time and money by not having to manually enter every item all over again.
- Support. Every business owner small and large needs all the support you can get. Your online business will NEVER close and neither should your support! You have too much at risk to settle for anything less than 24/7 web hosting customer support so make sure you get what you need.
These are just a few tips. You know your business and what it needs.
Our top three picks for ecommerce web hosting are:
