When it comes to evaluating your ecommerce hosting site options, you have a lot to consider. And perhaps the most important question to answer is whether you should host your own website or work with a hosting provider. This article from Practical eCommerce goes into the specifics of whether or not you should host your own site, and it makes good points supporting the merits of both options.
When examining ecommerce hosting sites, the point is that you always want your website to be running -- efficiently, quickly and securely. Maintaining your own server in-house can be more inexpensive and gives your business the control to make sure your site is performing as you and your customers demand it to be. On the flip side, using a hosting provider gives you access to people who specialize in servers, so if a problem arises, it will likely be able to be fixed more quickly.
More to Know About Ecommerce Hosting Sites
If you decide to go with a hosting provider, you should be aware of these options so you can decide which would make the most sense for your ecommerce business:
- Shared hosting: This is when your website gets space on a physical server, sharing it with other websites. Keep in mind that with this hosting solution, problems on another site that lives on the server can affect your site.
- Virtual dedicated hosting: This option still has your website living on a server with other sites, but it acts as if it is on its own standalone hardware. If one of the other websites on the server crashes, your site would not be affected.
- Dedicated hosting: Dedicated hosting would give your website and any of its subdomains its own server. Reasons to go with this option would be if you have a highly trafficked site or if your website offers audio and video downloads, which can require a lot of bandwidth.
As you delve deeper into considering Internet hosting providers, you will also want to know about their contingency plans should anything go wrong, as well as how their customer and technical support works.
Blueport Commerce hosts the entire technology platform for its ecommerce clients, including server hardware, maintenance, expansion, upgrades and secure, PCI compliance, leavgiving our customers valuable peace of mind. You can learn more on our Hardware & Secure Hosting solutions page.
Beyond the hardware for your ecommerce site, you need to make some decisions about your ecommerce shopping software. Here are some things to keep in mind as you conduct your ecommerce software comparison.
There has been a flurry of open-source ecommerce shopping software options, but does that make them the right option for your business? While open-source options initially appear to be more cost-efficient, they are pretty barebones. Often a technical background and/or programming knowledge is needed for customizing the software to meet your business’s needs.
In contrast, hosted ecommerce shopping software often comes with a complete package that includes a number of options so you wouldn’t have to worry about them. These include technical support, security updates, hosting, automatic upgrades and more. So when choosing which software option is best for you, you should investigate the technical resources you have or are willing to bring on, as well as what you want your company to focus on.
For our customers, Blueport Commerce handles all the details of hardware and software hosting, upgrades and security. We worry about keeping your ecommerce shopping software up and running, so our retailers can stay tuned in to their key business.
Most retailers looking to make the foray into ecommerce are quickly hit with the high capital investment required for ecommerce hardware, network equipment and hosting.
In addition to price, there are security regulations to consider. The impact of down time on your website and stores can be disastrous.
The entire process is complex, expensive and challenging to maintain. Its especially daunting to a retailer that is just stepping into the ecommerce arena and is already juggling with a multitude of factors to get their online store up and running.
Its easy to see the benefits of ecommerce outsourcing for ecommerce hardware and hosting. Not only does outsourcing of ecommerce hardware help drive down the operating costs for the retailer, but the right hosting solution will help ensure minimal down time.
Blueport's
ecommerce platform is hosted by us. We buy everything that is required to keep your store live and make the process as easy for you as possible - the ecommerce hardware, operating systems, network equipment, bandwidth. Our scale drives down prices while the retailer gets worry-free (and cap-ex free) ecommerce hardware.
In addition, we provide
ecommerce hardware maintenance, expansion and upgrades as well as operating system upgrades. We also provide 24x7 support, meaning no late night or weekend headaches for the retailer. Leaving you to focus on running the online store from the business side, not the technical one.
That's just one of the ways
Blueport Commerce makes ecommerce easy.
Choosing whether to host and maintain your web site is a tough decision, and factors include cost, staffing, and security. While the immediate assumption is to handle it internally like your store systems, once you start researching the hardware, equipment and hosting its complexities become clear. The security requirements, ability to keep it up 24x7, and the constant maintenance is not something your company can take on internally.
Blueport Commerce's hosted ecommerce solution can let you worry about the business side of your web site, not the uptime.
Key features of our hosted ecommerce solution:
- All hardware and hosting for your ecommerce site, driving down operating costs for the retailer.
- Benefit of our partners with leading providers like Akamai to speed delivery of your website content.
- Server hardware maintenance, expansion and upgrades as well as operating system upgrades.
- A highly secure, PCI compliant ecommerce platform.
Blueport Commerce's hosted ecommerce solution is cost-effective, and with guaranteed uptime and 24x7 support we can also give peace of mind to our retailers and their IT staff. Click here to learn more about how hosted ecommerce might be the right choice for you.
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