There are several e-commerce websites available online but the one that craves you the most is the first one you see, right? Why so? No doubt, it’s because of the design and appearance. What about speed, reliability and security? That too matter, right? Of course, they do.

Whenever you are purchasing something online, you always want the website you click-on to load faster, have a security certificate and offer reliable service. So, this means an e-commerce site creation involves the lot of things to do and it’s a website wherein businesses need to invest extensive time as well as money. This involves right from choosing a domain name, website development, SEO to choosing a best e-commerce hosting plan.

Today, having an online presence has become important for all kinds of businesses. Therefore, all businesses are striving hard to establish themselves firmly in this online world. Also, according to the Statista’s research report, global e-commerce sales are predicted to grow with a threefold lift and grow from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.5 trillion in 2021.  Bingo! That’s a big number.

Looking at this number, similar to other businesses, you might too have been thinking on setting up your e-commerce store. There are several e-commerce platforms available such as Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, etc. which have made online selling quite easy than ever before. The building, managing and marketing an online store becomes very easy with these platforms. But you would require a hosting plan too for hosting your website.

There are several web hosting companies in the market trying to appear the best but you might get trapped by choosing the one that meets just a few qualifications and seems to be affordable. So, it’s always better to patiently select your web hosting plan for e-commerce business. A lot of research is required to be done while selecting an e-commerce hosting solution.

Let’s first check why your e-commerce plan really matters?

 

Why Your E-commerce Hosting Plan Matters?

There are comparable plans offered by e-commerce hosting solutions right from basic to pro or enterprise plans. The plans and their companies can be differentiated on the basis of cost as well as other small details which are actually important but can be missed.

You won’t actually benefit with a low-cost plan as it will lack the essential security features required to protect your customers’ information or speed to load your site immediately after the user browses it. It’s like low the cost, less will be the benefits. It’s a fact that all e-commerce hosting plans as well as providers won’t be equal in any sense and so, you need to dive into deep to actually find what’s the best for you.

Though it is possible to change your hosting plan or hosting provider later, if it isn’t fulfilling your e-commerce requirements, migrating your site from one host to other involves great work and so, it is best to be avoided when possible.

Looking at the above explanation, it is important that you choose the right hosting plan. Don’t miss to go through the factors below that help you to make a proper choice in terms of e-commerce hosting plan.

Site Speed

A positive user experience, as well as your website rank in the search engines, is dependent on the site speed. Yes, Google tracks your site speed and then decides on where your site should appear in the search results page for a particular query.

Sounds annoying, but makes sense actually. There are end users for search engines too that think about all this. Giving the best possible user experience to their end users, search engines ensure that they send those websites that provide the required information as well as that don’t have long lag times which might frustrate the users.

There are around 47% of web users that expect a website to load within two seconds or less, while 40% of users will leave a website that loads in three or more seconds. This indicates the faster your website, the better it is. Studies prove that even a second’s delay in site load can cut down the conversion rate by 7%.

Website loading speed depends on several factors such as your web host, the size of the code on your site and the types of files present on your site. In hosting, when you are in control of the file types and code size (and you are able to optimize them) you have due diligence as the only resource.

Tip: There are some e-commerce hosting plans that offer high-speed add-ons. Don’t hesitate to pay for them as they are worth the cost.

Uptime

There isn’t any web host that will guarantee 100% uptime for your website and so, there are several web hosts that offer 99.9% uptime. This seems to be good enough, but you shouldn’t forget that any downtime can have a negative impact on your e-commerce revenue. The difference between 99.9% uptime and 99.99 percent uptime is 40 minutes per average month which can’t be thought as minor in an industry like e-commerce that is available 24/7, especially when there is peak time and problems are more likely to arise.

The cost of downtime is different for different businesses as it depends on size, industry and time of the day. As per the latest ITIC survey, 81% of businesses stated that just 60 minutes of website downtime can lead to a loss of over $300,000, and 98% of the businesses stated that 60 minutes can cause them a loss of over $100,000.

What if this happens multiple times a year? Your potential revenue might go into negative figures. But it can be more than this, too. Only a poor customer service experience can also damage your reputation and when there are several customers who are unable to check your product specs or complete their order due to downtime, it can cost you more than just the revenue loss.

Scalability

Whether you own a large or small business, you won’t say anytime that “That’s all, now I should stop growing. I don’t need my business to earn any more than it does right now.”

While setting up your e-commerce business, scalability needs to be considered as a major factor. Further, when your products or sales grow, your needs are surely going to change. Ensure that you select a platform that can enhance your growth and so, you don’t need to deal with downtime when switching to another platform which will serve you better.

Hidden Costs

You won’t find a completely free e-commerce platform. Though you build the website yourself with a domain name, your chosen web hosting and a shopping cart platform working on CMS such as WordPress or Drupal, you still need to pay for the domain, the web hosting, premium plugins along with the design and maintenance costs.

The costs of e-commerce platforms might vary – some might cost you more as it all depends on the features offered and your e-commerce store size. Also, some might charge for the bandwidth or transaction fees along with the charges assigned by the payment processor. You might also be charged a monthly fee depending on the number of products in your catalog, while some will charge you only for a part of the sale for each item you sell.

The operational costs can’t be neglected but in case you need a feature that isn’t available with others, paying a bit more for a one-stop shop is worth as it will ensure that business runs without any hassle over a long time.

Tech Support

It also one of the most important features that need to be checked for in your web host. There can be a time during peak season when your website might go down, so, you should get the relevant help from your web host. Customer support is a key aspect that actually separates good web hosts from the ordinary ones.

A web host needs to have a dedicated customer support team and if things go wrong with your hosting, the team should connect you with an expert person who can easily solve your issue and get it fixed. Prior to choosing a web host, try to get all the information about the customer support. Also, search for different ways for contacting the support team such as chat, email, phone and so on. Remember the customer support service should always be available 24/7 for 365 days.

Security

The e-commerce site that offers a secured platform where customer’s information is secured from the cyber bullies is the most preferred one. Taking this into consideration, you should also check if the hosting service is offering SSL certificate as it reduces the risk of theft by hackers. You can get optimal security by selecting a dedicated SSL server.

MilesWeb is one of the leading web hosting companies of India that offers the best, affordable and secure e-commerce hosting. Their plans commonly include SSD disk space (1GB in Economy plan and unlimited in other plans), free SSL certificate, cPanel + Softaculous, email accounts, etc. Their Economy plan starts at Rs. 99/mo.

Related: Tips to Improve the Security of Your WordPress blog

Lastly, the e-commerce hosting plan you choose is going to save you at least a few dollars. It will have a direct effect on your website’s security, performance capabilities and managing experience.

So, it’s always recommended to choose a plan that meets your requirements today as well as will continue doing so in future when your business grows.

Being an e-commerce business owner, you spend a lot of time online and also several customer interactions are ongoing on your site, therefore, you can’t neglect to find a perfect e-commerce hosting plan for your business.