Ecommerce is a highly booming business these days. The development of technology and the increased reliance of people on mobile and internet have paved the way for boosting ecommerce trade. But the competition is very tight and it is vital for businesses to remain updated to the latest online trends for being successful in this industry. The most important criteria for running an ecommerce business profitably are to have a powerful website and an effective web hosting platform to store your website files.
But the real problem comes while choosing the right hosting for your business. There is not a one size fit hosting solution to all. It all depends on the type and size of your business. The type of hosting needed for a startup is different from that required for an MNC, or the one that suits a restaurant will not suit an IT business or a real estate business. So, before choosing your hosting provider, you must have an idea about the various kinds of hosting and what all features you must look for in a hosting service.
Types of hosting
First, let us discuss on the various kinds of hosting and how well it supports your business.
Shared hosting: As the name suggests, your website files will be stored on the same server that hosts other websites. So, basically it involves sharing space with other websites on a single server. This is the most economical way and is mostly recommended for startups and those businesses that doesn’t handle high security or high priority data. This is due to the security issues and technical issues that may occur while using a common server.
Dedicated hosting: This is mostly preferred by large scale businesses and MNCs who deal with a huge amount of valuable data and have a lot of money to spend on technical aspects. Here, you will have an entire server dedicated to store your website files and email accounts. You also need to employ technicians who can operate the server at all times.
Cloud hosting: With cloud hosting, businesses can easily scale up or down their resources as per need. This is a more flexible option for both small and large-scale enterprises. A cloud is a group of many servers or datacenters installed at various locations and connected via internet. Thus, in cloud hosting, website files will be stored not on a single server, instead spread across the cloud. The resources like storage space, bandwidth etc can be increased or decreased as required and the payment is based on our usage only.
What features to look for while choosing ecommerce hosting?
In order to pick the best web hosting provider for your ecommerce business, you need to make sure that the hosting company offers the following benefits.
High Bandwidth and Storage
For an ecommerce site, the first priority should be finding a hosting that’s fast and reliable. More than half of the costumers will leave the website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load, and most of them will never return. That’s a great loss to your business.
A shared hosting is not recommended for an ecommerce business as it may lack sufficient bandwidth and storage essential to host an online store. It would be advisable to choose a dedicated hosting if you have strong budget or go for cloud hosting as it is flexible, reliable and economical.
Auto-Scalability
An ecommerce website is different from other sites as it is not easy to predict the online traffic during different times. At certain times, the website may experience a sudden surge of traffic and sometimes it may be low. So, it needs a flexible hosting with auto scalability, which means there should be provision to scale up and down the bandwidth and storage automatically as the traffic varies. This can be done with a managed ecommerce hosting on cloud server.
Proactive Support
Even if you have the best hosting, there are chances of issues and errors occurring at various times due to unpredictable circumstances. Such instances can be handled effortlessly only if your hosting provider has a good technical support team with experienced engineers and technicians. They should be able to comprehend the issue and provide the right solution within the minimum time as otherwise your website will remain down for a longer period causing great loss to your profit and reputation.
Strong Security
Ecommerce websites often engage with vital data such as customers’ personal information, bank details, credit card numbers and passwords that can be a potential target for hackers. These days online frauds are far higher than real thefts. So, it is important to make sure that your hosting platform is highly secure and makes use of the latest technological advancements to safeguard your business data.
Automatic Backups
Backups are an important necessity for every business as the loss of data can be fatal for them. But for an ecommerce site, it is an inevitable component. We never know, when there will be a natural or manmade disaster happening. If your web hosting provider doesn’t provide at least once daily backup, then it is better to avoid it.
Best ecommerce hosting for your business
When choosing an ecommerce hosting provider, you must select one that’s scalable according to your business needs and offers highest quality as well as affordable plans. A good ecommerce hosting provider gives special features like free migration, SSL certificate, advanced security, extra backups and much more customized for high traffic websites. With a managed ecommerce hosting from JachOOs, you can easily scale up or down your resources and enjoy greater flexibility and security at reasonable price.
