What You Need For An Ecommerce Site: Make Online Shopping A Pleasure
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- Have you ever thought of setting up your own online business or perhaps dreamed of expanding your local business to all parts of the country; maybe even in a global scale, across the world? Then you are on the right track; you’re about to take a great stride to reach a wider market span.
One of the fun parts in the exhilarating venture of running an online business is creating an online store, generally known as Ecommerce; which, some may say, is just a glam name for a business website where purchase of goods or services by customers is done. If done correctly and efficiently, Ecommerce can result to a well-organized business that will enhance your trade and boost your customer-base.
Of course, preparation and careful planning are key elements to kick off to a good start. You have to be familiar with some necessary and particularly crucial features to ensure the success of your online business as well as maintain the integrity and security of sensitive payment information of customers; otherwise, current customers may feel apprehensive at the thought of their information being in your possession and potential customers may be cagey at the idea of entrusting such vital data to your website.
Now you may have the mistaken notion that you have to be an expert or maybe spend a fortune to run your online shop. Creating an online store is a lot simpler than you think but only if you have the basic knowledge of what you need for a full-featured Ecommerce site to get going.
Obviously, the first thing you need is to have a product/s or services to sell – either physical/hard goods or downloadable/soft goods. Below is a list of the essential things you will need to push off a successful Ecommerce website.
Power Up Your Ecommerce Site
Before you can get your Ecommerce site underway, there are three key elements that you cannot do without:
Domain Name
This is your business identity by which your online store will be associated with; it is the online business address that shows customers – both existing and potential – the way to your site. More importantly, it is a determining factor to your page ranking in search engines. The ideal domain name should not only identify your business by name; it should also give a brief yet full description of the nature of your business, and what products and/or services are being offered.
Website/Website Design
Whether you build an Ecommerce website from scratch or have an existing website that you can add Ecommerce features and capabilities to, it’s important to remember that resultant Ecommerce site should convey a high level of trustworthiness. Your web design should reflect your excellent brand and quality products/services. An Ecommerce website with good design combined with functionality inspire a sense of trust as well as depict convenience. Bear in mind that nobody wants to do business with an “anonymous” entity. When building trust among customers, you must show your credibility and get across that you’re not just a fly-by-night business so make sure that you include “About Us”, “Contact Information”, and “Terms of Service” pages in your web design. Although, not quite an easy task, it doesn’t have to be technically challenging. You can simplify things by either getting the help of professionals that offer services to get your Ecommerce site up and running; or by doing it yourself with the use of tools available for such purpose – like WordPress, for instance.
Web Hosting Provider
Of course, you need a place for your site to reside and get hosted. There’s a huge number of Ecommerce hosting companies all too willing to offer their services but keep in mind that getting the most reliable one is crucial to your online store’s success. Pricing may be a factor but the Ecommerce features you get with package are critical to the smooth operation of your site. However, there are Ecommerce hosting companies such as BigCommerce that offer plans fully-loaded with up-to-the-minute features at very reasonable prices.
Ecommerce Tools – Your Site Won’t Survive Without Them
These are actually what will make or break your online business. The ease and proficiency of merging and integrating Ecommerce tools is greatly influenced by the platform you use. Simple-to-use Ecommerce tools work best, especially for those that are not so tech savvy. Here’s a list of some basic and essential tools to look out for:
- Shopping Cart System. This is absolutely one of the most imperative components of smooth Ecommerce operation and management. You need to incorporate this into your site right off the bat, as it is indispensable when processing orders, calculating payments, and issuing invoices. A really great shopping cart can be a bit expensive, so try to go for a host that includes several options for shopping carts as part of the hosting plan/package.
- Payment Gateway/Credit Card Processing. Needless to say, you need a system/method of accepting online payments; which generally means credit card payments, although there are other forms of payment that your shopping cart may be capable of (e.g., Checks, PayPal, COD, etc.). Simply put, the payment gateway processes payments from your website and essentially converts electronic transactions into actual funds that eventually go to your bank account. You have two options to make this work. You may set up free accounts with gateways that authorize credit card payments then deposit the amount to your bank account. These gateways usually charge a percentage (about 3% or less) for every transaction. Be aware that your customers will be redirected to the secure page of the gateway provider and once done, brought back to a pre-identified page you have chosen on your site. Or you can go for the more professional look and enable your customers to complete their checkout and payment process direct from your own site.
- Merchant Account. If you want to process check transactions and credit card payments right within your own website, a merchant account is required. It is very much like an ordinary bank account but besides the usual similarities, a merchant account allows you to accept and process credit card payments/charges for goods and services. It is typical for banks that cater to merchant accounts to charge a percentage of all transactions and may also impose additional setup fee and/or monthly fees.
- SSL Certificate. It doesn’t need reiterating that security is extremely important, especially when you process credit card payments. “Security” here means that all your customers’ sensitive data stored in your shopping pages and transferred through your Ecommerce site are totally protected through encryption. This is accomplished with the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate, indicated by the LOCK ICON on the browser. This little “lock” tells the consumers that your website is secure and can be trusted; without it, potential customers may have second thoughts about buying your products and entrusting their data to your online store. SSL certificate can cost anywhere from $100 (for shared SSL) to about $300; thus it is ideal to find a host that can provide this along with the Ecommerce plan you purchase. Another option is to find a host that will let you “piggyback” off their SSL certificate for free.
- Marketing and Site Promotion Tools/Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You need to think about how to attract customers to your site. A good marketing strategy that includes search engine optimization is critical. Blogs, banner ads, keywords, social media presence and the likes are some of the things you should keep in mind while you’re working to boost the sales potential of your Ecommerce site. Find a provider that offers hosting packages/plans that include these requirements.
There are several other things you need to keep your Ecommerce website running smoothly, among them: Product Catalog, Mailing List, Database Support, and more. The point is to make your customers’ online shopping a pleasant and convenient experience. And you can attain this by having an Ecommerce solution provider with simple and user-friendly apps that allow hassle-free integration of fully-functioning features. It’s guaranteed; your customers would love doing business with you again…and again!
HostGator – Why I Recommend Them
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- As you may have read in my Hostgator reviews, HostGator has been one of those providers that I have been recommending to my readers for their hosting needs. And no, it is not just a biased review at all. I personally use HostGator for a lot of my websites for some years now, and I must say I am definitely impressed with their service.
Whether you’re looking for a multiple domain host, dedicated server, or just plain web hosting, HostGator is the superb choice for that optimal performance. As you can see, with HostGator, you will get much more value for your money. This is especially true for dedicated hosting service, as it offers its clients powerful, guaranteed 99% uptime, speed, and secured performance of its servers. They’ve got both Linux and Windows servers to suit what you need for your website.
Obviously, HostGator has already proven how reliable and world-class its service is, and thus became recipient of numerous awards. Its plans can either cost you a monthly or yearly fee, and while this may be a little bit more costly than others, expect a great service overall. You can also try their service for a 45-day no strings attached trial period, and then decide whether you’ll stay or not. If I was a betting person I would bet that you would stay with them.
Now of course, there are times when you’d have doubts or issues with your server, but hey, that’s where you’ll get in touch with their outstanding customer support which is probably the best in this industry. They’ve got a 24/7 customer service support ready to assist you in any way possible. You can contact them via phone, live chat, forum, and ticket systems. They don’t outsource, but train their own support staffs in their base at Dallas, Texas. Technically, this means reaching staff who can really understand what you need, what you’re asking for, and will be ready to assist you any time. Plus, you’d be sure you’re reaching a real human when you call them, not a computer-generated message that will let you wait and wait for minutes without even getting a “real” response. They will serve one customer at a time, and they will transfer you to another representative available so you won’t have to wait a long time before being assisted. Awesome indeed.
Satisfied customers, impressed experts, won awards, and overpassed competitions, HostGator is highly recommended by not only me but numerous webmasters, bloggers, and beginners out there. Once you try out their services, you will not just get a nice experience, but a mind boggling journey that will take you years in this online industry.
Fatcow – The Reason Their Clients Moo About Them!
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- FatCow is another web hosting company that has more than a decade of outstanding service to its clients. Established in 1998, FatCow has already gained its rank among the top of the list of the most trusted hosting providers, with a unique twist.
On first look, you’d see their cool cow and farm-themed website. In fact, this is certainly an eye-catcher. In an interview with their marketing manager, Paul Bukhovko (see interview with Fatcow), this theme (and the name FatCow itself) is chosen to show the sense of being a company that will deliver “that simple, old-fashioned service and value”.
Being true to their word, FatCow indeed offers inexpensive hosting plans with great function and quality. In fact, their basic plan, the Original FatCow Plan, is now valued at $56/yr. This plan comes with unlimited disk space and bandwidth, Site Builder tools, Google Search and Webmaster Tools, and lots of advertising freebies such as Google AdWords and Facebook credits. Add up the 30-day money back guarantee and 24/7 customer support service.
FatCow also brings a green and environment-friendly service by providing 100% wind-powered servers, reducing carbon footprint. However, don’t you worry about compromised server reliability, as wind generators are very powerful source of energy. So far, there have been no issues with them being green, and in fact, it garnered praises and awards for its endeavour to do such.
FatCow also boasts largely of its great customer service. It does possess a live and updated “system notices board” that updates customers every time a maintenance or outage is happening. Clients won’t have to check their site or blog to know what is going on, and this lessens the chances of sending support tickets. But still their ticket system is great, and their staff answers in a timely manner. I have talked to them on a number of occasions. They treasure their clients greatly, thus they, as per their Heifercratic Oath, welcome them to FatCow by calling them within the first 7 days of their subscription.
User-friendliness is also a great feature of FatCow plans. Its cPanel is vDeck 4 which is fairly easier than the default cPanel. This control panel can support different kinds of scripts and programming codes such as MySQL, Python, PHP 4 and 5, as well as CGI directory. Their plan also offers a bit of SEO assistance, and it is efficiently managed in the vDeck platform. It also supports Drag and Drop system, which makes it very easy for beginners to fix their sites’ pages.
Another unique and latest server feature is the process called “load balance technology”. This process allows its clients to maximize their bandwidth, speed, and performance since it distributes workload across networks and clusters. This is basically why there have been no negative reports whatsoever about their server performance.
Aside from the Original FatCow Plan which is paid yearly, you can also opt to try their Mini Moo Plan, which is only for $5 a year. This comes with an email account and 35% off a domain name, just perfect to start your venture in online web pages.
As their webpage looks like, FatCow is committed to offering you a fun and simple but satisfying service and value, without lots of extra babbles. Please read my full Fatcow review to see what they can provide you with. They are great for when you want to start a website and do offer a one time payment (shared plan), a later date you can upgrade to an InMotion VPS or dedicated plan if you would like. (because FatCow doesn’t offer anything but shared plans)
Hostgator – Why Customers Love Them?
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- HostGator is an independent hosting company that offers different kinds of web hosting plans. These range from shared and reseller, VPS and dedicated, with either Windows or Linux as the operating system. It is already a decade-year-old provider ran by Brent Oxley and has achieved more than 25 awards due to their superb hosting. My Hostgator review defiantly praises them.
As you can see with its vast and long period of service, it is definitely a solidly stable company that you can try for whatever hosting plan you need. Now with more than 12,000 servers, HostGator boasts its outstanding hosting service with amazing customer service throughout 200 countries worldwide. This excellent service is what actually keeps it clients sticking to them.
Probably much has been said about HostGator being a great provider. But really what’s so great about them?
First, there goes reliability and uptime. HostGator offers 99% uptime guarantee. This is due to their efficient and fully-monitored datacenters and Cisco network that connects to 10 backbone and fiber providers. Top of the line technology is used on their datacenters in Dallas, Texas within The Planet’s facility.
HostGator also boasts its cool features such as eco-friendly web hosting service by means of using wind-powered generators, various hosting options depending on the plans needed, as well as ease of access using cPanel which supports Fantastico. This panel is also able to run different scripts such as Chilisoft ASP, Image Magick, and ZenCart. You can also get unlimited POP3 email accounts and unlimited MySQL databases with your plans.
Aside from their Hatchling and Baby shared hosting plans, they also offer a business hosting plan that comes with free private SSL, dedicated IP, and superb customer support. This shared hosting comes much cheaper just for you to start your business rather than starting off with a VPS or a dedicated server just yet.
Interestingly, they’ve got a long trial period, too. Unlike other providers, which only offer around 15 to 30 days of trial, HostGator offers up to 45 days of trial period. This is actually notable with the fact that HostGator will not offer this ability if they are not sure that they can deliver within a month and a half’s service to you.
Probably the most outstanding about their service is their customer support. In comparison to other online companies, it ranks on the top of the list, in my opinion. They’ve got a 24-hour support system either via phone, support tickets, or live chat. They don’t outsource their agents too, meaning these people got the right education and ability to help their customers with all their concerns. I have personally talked to them a number of times and run a handful of my websites with them. This is evident with lots of good feedback they are getting, even from widely-known institutions. They even got an A+ rating in Better Business Bureau. This means that majority of people would definitely have this rating for it.
HostGator definitely is one of the few hosting providers that would rank on the top of the most trusted hosting providers. Their webpage looks very simple on the outside, but they keep their service on an outstanding level on the inside.
The Truth about Unlimited Bandwidth
( The Best Web Hosting Service )You need Web Hosting when you do online business. The basic requirement when you want to subscribed to a web hosting plan is bandwidth. Bandwidth is an amount you have available to transfer web pages from the web server to the browsers of your online visitors. Web pages and graphics consume a large amount of bandwidth. Unlimited bandwidth hosting has developed because of vicious competition among web hosting companies. If you have unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth you are assured that whether your website grows faster than you think it will there will be no problem.
Labeling bandwidth as unlimited is far from the truth. Although hosting companies have huge servers and fiber cables that can provide you the internet access for those sites that stored on their service it still has its limits. Hosting companies are limited to the amount of capacity that they have. Unlimited bandwidth can only be possible if the website hosting company has their own internet broadband company.
Unlimited bandwidth offer is dependent on the premise that not all their customers are using their bandwidth at all. What if at any given time customers will have peaks on their needs against the other customers like them then the bandwidth that they all need will not be sufficient for everybody’s use.
If you need that much bandwidth check the fine print of your web hosting company’s contract because it might contain information that says that if you exceed the their maximum bandwidth allotted for your website you need to pay for an upgrade. This usually takes place when you have an online store that has lots of pictures. There are also other examples on why you can exceed your present bandwidth need like when you have many visitors or traffic to your site.
Before you close that contract with your new web host provider do not forget about the server resources usage. This includes CPU, RAM and database connection. Without this bandwidth and disk storage issues would be worthless. To calculate your website’s bandwidth requirement the formula is the total page size multiplied by your estimated number of visitors.
Stating that they are offering unlimited bandwidth is almost close to impossible. Consumers do often grab attractive offers like this because of the word UNLIMITED but customers are unaware of its true limitations. Check in your hosting company’s Terms of Service (TOS) it is noted there what the real definition of unlimited is. Your best path for you to take is to plan ahead. After you estimate how much bandwidth you need multiply the figure by two to allow room for your future expansion needs. If you have exceeded your limit for your bandwidth use be sure that your web host provider will immediately contact you.
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