E-commerce: 5 Tips to select the Best Hosting Solution

The growth of e-commerce, as a result of digitization, has completely revolutionized how buyers and sellers interact in the market place. Consequently, there has been a lot of processes involved in ensuring that an online business is seamless and customer-centric.

For the smooth operation of an e-commerce business website, the details concerning the appropriate web hosting procedures to put in place are pivotal. Hence, some factors come into play when choosing a web hosting solution to suit your e-commerce website that can either make or break your business.

Security ranks top on the list of factors to look for when choosing a web hosting solution. An e-commerce website is built on a model that requires customers to upload their personal information on the website, from names to credit card information. So there’s a need to ensure that all the information uploaded by customers to your site remains secure by using robust security measures. This can be done by picking a web hosting plan that protects your website through the provision of Secure Socket Layer(SSL) certificates. Encryption of your website with HTTPS is also another way to ensure that your customers feel safe providing their details and financial information on your website.

The performance of your e-commerce website should be optimal at all times for a smooth customer journey which leads to a high conversion rate. Slow loading speed and crashes on your site can be a deterrent to a successful online business. Therefore, your website should be adaptable to high traffic which could potentially lead to performance issues if your website doesn’t have enough resources at its disposal to manage it. Your web hosting plan should allocate enough resources to the running of your e-commerce website, and leave more room to support your online business’s growth.

The aesthetic of an e-commerce website, achieved by using a lot of graphics for the products, is a necessary part of the website. Therefore, a lot of bandwidth is likely to be consumed as users interact with the website and its products. For an e-commerce website to achieve a strong database performance, the bandwidth should be scalable. Essentially, this means that your web hosting solution should be able to accommodate any excess bandwidth caused by the high traffic of potential customers. Therefore, picking a web hosting solution that can accommodate an excess bandwidth is necessary for an e-commerce site to operate at optimum levels.

An E-commerce website is also built on the premise of functionality and customization which is achieved by the use of technology. A critical part of having a successful e-commerce website is through the use of content management systems. There is a wide array of CMS available, whose varying differences can help one choose the best e-commerce website based on the functions one can achieve by using them. The integration of the technology used to host a website and content management systems installed should be compatible to achieve a functioning website.

Server reliability is a critical component when choosing a web hosting solution for your e-commerce website. Even if the best web hosting company is bound to run into server issues, an uptime of 99.99 percent is found to be the most desirable. The uptime of a web hosting company will guide you on choosing the best web hosting to ensure that your e-commerce website is up and running round the clock. Prolonged downtime in your e-commerce website could lead to loss of conversions and potentially, huge losses to your online business.

Finding the best web hosting solution for your e-commerce website can be the difference between its success and failure. At HOSTAFRICA, we help you avoid glaring mistakes by giving you expert advice on the appropriate web hosting solution to use for your e-commerce website to thrive.