Post by collins51 on Jan 16, 2012 10:12:49 GMT
A shopping cart is the most basic factor of doing an online business. So, learn as much about the prospective shopping cart software offered by the web hosts. Make sure it supports SSL, a common site security protocol that will help keep your customer's credit card numbers and other personal details safe when they order online. It will need to support your merchant account and payment gateway.
In many cases a host might combine these services, so that it is compatible with all your requirements. If you secured your merchant services separately from hosting, be sure they are compatible. Find out if the cart has a recommended maximum product limit and, make sure you do not to exceed it. The store may slow down and perform poorly if there are too many products in it.
Finally, make sure it will do everything you want it to do. Some website owners sell services and downloadable items. If your cart doesn't support these features by default, there may be 3rd party applications that will support this feature. Miva Merchant is one such shopping cart with a very active 3rd party developer community providing a wide range of applications which extend the features of the original program. The business owner will have to buy these add-ons and have them installed on their own initiative. The hosting company will not be able to support them.
Another factor of great importance is reliability in your chosen host. If an online store is down at any hour, no customers will be able to visit it and no sales are made. You would want a most reliable host for such a site which has to be up and functioning 24x7. Never take the word of a hosting company's site in regards to their uptime. Always do your research and look for customer reviews of your prospective host. Decide on your products, your shopping cart, and then search for your hosting company. You will need more space and transfer than an ordinary site, but start small with your product selection and you can save money on your hosting.
Refer the recent articles by experts from custom web design firms to get more tips to please the website visitors.
In many cases a host might combine these services, so that it is compatible with all your requirements. If you secured your merchant services separately from hosting, be sure they are compatible. Find out if the cart has a recommended maximum product limit and, make sure you do not to exceed it. The store may slow down and perform poorly if there are too many products in it.
Finally, make sure it will do everything you want it to do. Some website owners sell services and downloadable items. If your cart doesn't support these features by default, there may be 3rd party applications that will support this feature. Miva Merchant is one such shopping cart with a very active 3rd party developer community providing a wide range of applications which extend the features of the original program. The business owner will have to buy these add-ons and have them installed on their own initiative. The hosting company will not be able to support them.
Another factor of great importance is reliability in your chosen host. If an online store is down at any hour, no customers will be able to visit it and no sales are made. You would want a most reliable host for such a site which has to be up and functioning 24x7. Never take the word of a hosting company's site in regards to their uptime. Always do your research and look for customer reviews of your prospective host. Decide on your products, your shopping cart, and then search for your hosting company. You will need more space and transfer than an ordinary site, but start small with your product selection and you can save money on your hosting.
Refer the recent articles by experts from custom web design firms to get more tips to please the website visitors.