Just 10 years ago, when online store owners went shopping for a hosting solution, their top considerations were traffic load management and accessibility.
This was one of the reasons why online stores started with shared hosting solutions (the price factor) and then upgraded to virtual private servers (VPS) to handle the increasing traffic load.
This used to be the typical journey for e-commerce stores.
Time has evolved and now the online competition is fierce. The hosting solution that powers an online store has become a decisive advantage.
To face the competition, the hosting solution selection criteria have been changed to reflect the current situation. In particular, factors that affect the selection of a specific hosting solution include the following tips.
Server uptime
In the e-commerce industry, downtime directly translates to lost revenue and customers. That's why uptime is often the first factor when selecting the hosting provider for an ecommerce store.
Scalable Features
During the holiday season, all ecommerce stores experience a significant increase in traffic and user requests.
This significantly increases demands on server resources (RAM, bandwidth, and storage). As such, a hosting solution that offers scalable server capabilities is ideal for ecommerce stores.
Simple backup processes
Ecommerce store owners know that the most important asset in their store is product and customer data.
Therefore, server backup processes that provide automated, on-demand backups with local and offsite storage are an essential component of storage management and disaster response strategies.
extensible platform
Digital marketing for e-commerce now requires the use of a number of native and third-party tools.
Various categories of tools, such as performance measurement tools, email marketing, and social media and CRM management tools, have become an integral part of store operations.
A hosting solution that supports seamless integration of these tools is always preferable to competitors.
Pay for consumption billing
Running an e-commerce store can be expensive. The popular payment model for e-commerce hosting used to be in fixed monthly installments, regardless of the level of consumption of server resources.
However, many store owners now prefer the pay-to-consume model, in which they only have to pay for the resources they consume. This simplifies billing cycles and allows e-commerce stores to remain viable during downtime.
Go deeper into this topic: download our Guide to Scaling Your E-Commerce Capabilities!
