What is eCommerce Hosting?
E-commerce hosting is the set of tools and infrastructure that are offered by hosting companies to clients who want to run their businesses online. E-commerce hosting has become popular since the growth of online buying and selling at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Features of eCommerce Hosting
E-commerce website offers some special tools to clients for running their websites online. One of the most important of these tools is a web server to host the e-commerce website, which can require a lot more storage space and processing capacity than other websites to manage thousands of transactions taking place online every day. E-commerce hosting companies also provide an email server to their clients. The email server is used to store email addresses of online buyers. These addresses are used to prepare mailing lists and send promotional emails and newsletters to online buyers. The hosting service also includes online payment portals with security features to enable the secure processing of credit card information.
Pros of eCommerce Hosting
There are several pros of e-commerce hosting. It allows businesses to create an online business without a lot of financial investment. The client only has to pay a monthly fee to the hosting company for the use of server resources. When the e-commerce hosting company assumes the responsibility to maintain the website on its server, the company can focus its energies on the strategic aspects of the business instead of addressing the technical issues of the e-commerce website. There are savings to be made if longer period hosting agreements are made with an e-commerce hosting company.
Cons of eCommerce Hosting
There are reasons why a company should think twice when entering into an agreement with an ecommerce hosting company. Since the hosting company looks after the management of the website, it can become frustrating for the client if the ecommerce sales become a significant part of the total revenues of the company. There is also the risk that the security features of the hosting company can become compromised, leading to loss of data integrity and anger among customers. It is also possible that customer data might be sold by the hosting company to third party advertisers.
Reputed eCommerce Hosting Companies
A number of ecommerce hosting companies offer competitive services to clients through various attractive packages and service plans. Some of the best ecommerce hosting companies are presented here:
