Ecommerce hosting is a hosting platform that serves ecommerce websites with features like security, shopping cart software, payment processing services and more.  

Usually, ecommerce hosting services providers manage all the technical aspects of website development and maintenance for all their clients. Though there are multiple ecommerce web hosts to choose from, it is essential to choose the one that aligns well with your website traffic and size, budget, and sales volume and has rich experience in website development.  

Types of Ecommerce Hosting 

There are various types of ecommerce hosting you need to know about before choosing one for yourself. Below we’ve listed a few of the popular ones and the benefits they bring to your online brand. 

1. Cloud Hosting 

It uses computing services from third-party cloud providers that offer the cloud server, network, and storage. In cloud hosting, the remote servers are inter-connected. When one piece of hardware goes down, another one replaces it quickly, providing high reliability. It is a popular hosting solution for the common problem ecommerce websites face — quickly outgrowing their server environment. 

It uses a pay-as-you-use pricing model, i.e., it charges based on your resource usage. Therefore, based on your website traffic, you can quickly scale resources as and when required. 

2. SaaS  

SaaS, or software-as-a-service, is a type of cloud-based hosting. The software that runs your website and web hosting is included in one subscription. 

Using a SaaS host frees you to focus on growing your business without worrying about the IT issues that you would’ve to take care of if you self-host your website. Your host manages data, runtime, applications, servers, storage, and networking. 

Just with an active internet connection, you can use the software, which typically includes hosting infrastructure, software licenses, and apps that help you to integrate the system with financial and reporting software. 

3. Shared Hosting 

Shared hosting, wherein your website shares a physical server with one or several other websites, is ideal for ecommerce websites as it offers enhanced performance at a lower cost. A shared hosting environment is closely managed by the web hosting provider. Most companies offering this service constantly tune the server resources so that the websites run faster with minimum downtime. 

4. VPS Hosting 

A virtual private server (VPS) is a form of multi-tenant cloud hosting. In this, one physical server is divided into multiple virtual servers.  

Each server is installed on a physical machine, operated by a hosting provider or cloud that runs multiple VPSs. However, while VPSs share underlying hardware and hypervisor, each VPS runs its own applications and operating system (OS) and reserves its own portion of the machine.  

5. Dedicated Hosting 

Dedicated hosting is one of the popular hosting options in which a physical server is dedicated to a business customer. The customer has full control over the server and can optimize it according to their distinct requirements, including security and performance. The hosting service provider offers the environment and physical server, associated services, and technical support. 

Why It’s Crucial to Choose the Best Ecommerce Hosting 

It is crucial to choose the best ecommerce hosting to avoid issues like: 

1. Slow websites 

Today, at least 47% of consumers expect a page load speed of two seconds or even less than that. Besides customer experience, Google uses site speed as a major ranking factor because search engines take longer to give results if they are unable to discover and index the website quickly. Therefore, having a good page loading speed is necessary for every business website. 

The best ecommerce web hosting company will ensure that it can manage the expected volume, which includes traffic spikes and factors that can interfere with performance, such as content delivery networks and caching.  

2. Vulnerable websites 

Essentially, ecommerce businesses should implement security measures in their store before customers start making purchases. All browsers are different, and some offer more security measures than others.  

For example, Chrome’s mission is to keep consumers safe as they surf the web, making it a popular browser. If your website is not encrypted with HTTPS, it will be defined as ‘not secure’ when your audience uses Chrome. And when someone sees this in the URL bar, it brings down their confidence in your brand.  

READ: Importance of SSL Certificate for an E-Commerce Website

3. Downtime 

If your customers cannot access your website, they cannot buy. The revenue lost during an hour’s downtime depends on your sales volume, time of the day, traffic and the number of people impacted. 

Sometimes, hosting service providers schedule planned maintenance, which may cause your website to go down. However, unplanned downtime is more threatful as it may take longer to remediate.  

Therefore, it’s important to choose a reputable web hosting service provider, like Bigrock, that guarantees maximum uptime. We guarantee 99.9% uptime with best-in-class customer support. 

Things to Consider When Choosing an Ecommerce Hosting Provider 

A few important things to consider while selecting the best hosting for your ecommerce store are: 

1. High performance 

For an ecommerce website, your priority should be to choose a reliable and fast web host,  as fast load time attracts a higher number of visitors and helps rank higher on SERPs. The right web hosting provider offers performance components like caching mechanisms, content delivery networks, and the latest hardware technology.  

2. Bandwidth and file storage 

Ecommerce stores have numerous images and videos on the product pages to give a complete idea of how the products look like. Such high-resolution images may lead to a slow website. Therefore, ensure you have adequate bandwidth to properly support all these files. 

3. Hosting cost 

Ideally, the choice and cost of your ecommerce hosting plan will depend on your business demand and size. But choosing a less expansive hosting should be avoided even if it comes for a lower cost as it can damage your website and cause security risks.  

Bigrock offers shared and dedicated Ecommerce Hosting for small businesses, professionals, and individuals at a reasonably affordable price with numerous features and services.  

4. Technical support 

To offer uninterrupted services to your visitors, choosing a web hosting provider with 24/7 proactive customer support is essential.  

Bigrock offers fully qualified technical support with 24/7 live chat/phone/email support and monitoring.  

Start Selling with a Reliable Platform Now 

Ecommerce hosting should fit your unique business demands and offer a responsive website, high uptime, best-in-class technical support, and server security. Moreover, an excellent web hosting provider will help you grow your ecommerce business with an optimally running website.  

Check out our range of Ecommerce Hosting plans tailored to your business’s specific needs.