When starting an online business one has to look at hosting options. Hosting in itself has got many different options to choose from. Here is the list of the top 10 hosting providers for your reference. For this post, we will look at the best eCommerce hosting in India as an option.
eCommerce refers to online trading of goods and services. It is different from the brick and mortar model, in that eCommerce businesses do not always have a physical store to trade from. Thus, everything may be done online.
There are many examples of this kind of business, Amazon being the most famous. Finding the best eCommerce hosting for business is, therefore, not such an art. There are also hybrid models that involve a brick & mortar business that has an online arm. This is a very popular model as it takes advantage of the pros of both the online model as well as the brick & mortar model.
Best eCommerce Hosting Providers in India
If you’ve followed an eCommerce website checklist to build an online store, then you’d know that hosting is an important part. eCommerce web hosting is a type of hosting that is primarily aimed at those who are looking to buy or sell goods and services online. In this case, the hosting company offers the tools and the client is able to buy or sell.
At HostingClues, we bring to you the most comprehensive and honest reviews about the best web hosting in India such as this Bluehost Review. Our recommendations are based on a series of essential parameters. This will help businesses make the right choice when choosing the best web hosting provider in India for their online business.
What is eCommerce Hosting?
Now that we know the meaning of different aspects of eCommerce hosting, we can look at the unified concept of eCommerce hosting.
As we have said, hosting is buying the resources to run a website or business from another company’s server.
eCommerce is doing business online. Therefore, eCommerce web hosting is when a company leases the resources from another company in order to be able to buy & sell goods and services online.
In this situation, you would be a hopeful seller of a product, e.g. vinyl jazz albums. You wish to sell to a wider market and so you decide to create a website and sell to a local or international market.
However, you have no knowledge of website design and you don’t have a place to run the website once created. You also don’t know how you would be able to collect orders, keep track of the orders and what stock you have left. On top of that, you are unable to collect your payment once a purchase is made.
This is where the eCommerce host comes in. They will give you a hosting package, which will provide you space on their server, if not the whole server. They will also make available to you eCommerce tools so that you can run your business online. Not only to take orders, keep stock and invoice customers, but also to transfer funds between your customers and yourself.
eCommerce hosting companies usually take the role of creating the website and setting up accounts so as to process your sales and transactions. This can be very good for those trying to keep costs down.
You can make use of the Shared Hosting in India or dedicated server hosting in India depending on the size and traffic of your website. Thus, these are some aspects that you should consider as you pick the best hosting for eCommerce website in India.
The next step, after creating an online store, is to invest in various best practices to increase eCommerce sales. This includes social media, SEO, email marketing, and more.
Features of eCommerce Hosting
eCommerce hosting is a great option for those looking to jump into the world of eCommerce. It is a cheaper option that is tried and tested by many others. The good thing about this is that one can step into the arena with a wealth of knowledge in the form of first-hand eCommerce hosting reviews and articles like the one you are reading right now.
That being said, when considering which eCommerce hosting company (and there are many) to go with, there are certain features that need to be thought through and investigated, so that you can get the best deal for your particular requirements. Always do proper research and do not settle for anything less than the top eCommerce hosting provider that satisfies your requirements.
Web hosting features like uptime, disk space, bandwidth, eCommerce tools, as well as support should be given by the hosting company that offers eCommerce web hosting.
Uptime
We have all heard of downtime, meaning the time when the server is down. Your clients don’t have access to your website and you are pulling your hair out, out of frustration, while trying to fix the problem. Uptime is the other end of the spectrum. It is the amount of time that the server is fully functioning and is expressed as a percentage. This is an important feature as it tells you how reliable the eCommerce hosting service is, as well as the probability of your site going down because of the server going down. As a prospective hosting client, you should look for a 99.9% uptime.
Disk Space
This is another important aspect because depending on your site it could mean the difference between the two packages to buy. Most eCommerce hosting providers offer a very high disk space allowance for each eCommerce hosting package. However, depending on what your site will be dealing with, it is important to have some idea of how much space you will be using. This will enable you to find the ideal hosting package for your site.
Bandwidth
Every site builder expects to have traffic coming to and from the site. This is the whole point of a website. That being said, when looking for an eCommerce hosting in India, you should look at how much bandwidth you can avail and if there are any limitations. As your site grows so will the amount of traffic, thus you may find your site and the server becoming a little sluggish. This would be the point where you would have to consider changing your current eCommerce web hosting package to a higher plan.
eCommerce tools provided
A major selling point for eCommerce hosting is the fact that you get eCommerce tools with the package. These will enable you to buy & sell goods and services online. At the bare minimum, you should look for a package that will offer shopping carts, a website builder as well as merchant account gateways.
Support
The level of support that the hosting company offers is very important, especially, if you are starting out in hosting and eCommerce. Usually, hosting companies have excellent support by phone, chat and email. This can make or break your business because it will help you start up, keep the server maintained and keep downtime to a minimum.
Is eCommerce Web Hosting For You?
Now that you know what features to look out for, you can focus on the question of whether or not eCommerce hosting is the right choice for you.
This hosting is great for its cost-effectiveness and the fact that you will get support as you work on growing your business. A further positive is the fact that you will get your eCommerce presence set up and you will be given the tools to create and build your online business.
So, if you are looking to start your eCommerce business and need help in getting it set up and having a reliable platform to conduct business as you grow and learn the business, then eCommerce hosting may be the way for you to go. Plus, it will help you keep expenses down.
eCommerce hosting in India is currently a thriving business. With the eCommerce market taking a boom and expanding at an exponential rate, it’s best to position yourself well to provide a service to potential customers. Read this web hosting checklist to know what factors to consider before making a purchase.
eCommerce Hosting – Advantages & Disadvantages
There are many advantages to eCommerce hosting as a whole. The fact that you will be able to cater to a larger market and will be able to save on maintaining physical grounds are huge selling points for eCommerce web hosting.
For this article, we will look at 5 advantages and benefits of this type of hosting. Looking at the other side of the coin, we’ll also have a look at the possible disadvantages of eCommerce hosting.
Advantages
- High availability and scalability: The importance of having as high an uptime as possible, have been discussed earlier. It is from this that a major advantage to eCommerce is derived. Because of the nature of an online store, it is always available and thus, you can always be doing business. This means you are not losing sales because of your store being closed. Also, the fact that your business can grow to whatever size you wish is a major advantage.
- Secure customers’ transactions: A major part of eCommerce is the securing of transactions. If clients do not trust eCommerce providers they will not use their site. Hence, this is why eCommerce hosts use tools that will help to make sure clients’ funds are safe online. Providers make sure the eCommerce site has authentic SSL certificates that help to ensure all transactions and information is secure throughout the process. They also make sure your website is safe from hackers and viruses.
- Ease of shopping with carts: Shopping carts make the online shopping experience that much better. They streamline the whole process and make it much faster. When customers find an item they like and want, they can add it to the shopping cart. Once they are done shopping, they can review the items and decide if they are still happy with them. They then go on to the checkout point, which is secured and connected to payment options and can easily order what they want.
- Support: The importance of support cannot be emphasized enough. When you are starting an online store, having the support of the eCommerce hosting provider and its server administrator staff can help you set up your business really fast. Furthermore, they will be in charge of keeping the server running and any updating that needs to be done. They will also back up your data making sure you always have it available no matter what.
- Multiple website management with a single admin panel: If you are looking at expansion then you may probably look towards running multiple sites. This can get complicated if you do not have a central point of control. Hence, the use of a single admin panel to control all the sites can be the key.
So, take advantage of the top eCommerce hosting providers in India for excellent services in getting your online store up & ready to make money.
Disadvantages
- Lack of Tools:eCommerce has been a major thing for a while and as such, there are many competitors in the market. This means that you will be competing with already established companies, some who have invested heavily into eCommerce. In the case of you using eCommerce hosting, you may not have all the tools you need to take these competitors on. However, this can be compensated for as you grow your business and upgrade to a higher plan.