E-commerce has taken the world by storm. Customers love its convenience, and businesses admire the opportunities it provides. To make it even better, technology has made starting an online store easier than ever. Nowadays, anyone can start their online business with little to no technical knowledge required, as long as the knowledge of web hosting is there.

However, there’s a great difference between putting together a website that merely resembles an online store and actually running a successful e-commerce business. Anyone can do the former, but the latter starts with finding a proper web hosting service provider. 

In this article, we’ll discuss all the reasons you should carefully select your web hosting service provider before kickstarting your online store business. 

What is eCommerce Web Hosting?

There’s something we should point out first, though. Although they’re technically the same, there’s a difference between traditional web hosting solutions and those used for e-commerce. Traditional web hosting is used for normal websites, which means they can also host e-commerce stores. 

The difference is, that e-commerce web hosting services focus on providing the additional features online stores need. These features include shopping carts, SSL certificates, payment gateways, and other e-commerce-focused features. So, although they technically use the same system, they provide different features for their users. 

Why Proper Web Hosting is Important for Online Stores

There is a myriad of reasons you should investigate various e-commerce web hosting services before you settle on one. Here are 9 reasons to do so:

• No Need for Technical Know-How

After researching e-commerce platforms, you’ll find that Magento is one of the most advanced software solutions you can use. However, Magento is a complex beast, to say the least. 

You can take the longer route of hiring a dedicated web development team to take care of its maintenance. However, you’ll find hosting your Magento website via a specialized e-commerce web host service provider to be much more practical and efficient. The web host will not only host, support, upgrade, and maintain your e-store, but they’ll also provide services such as web design and customer support. 

That’s to say, you’ll run an expert-level business without the need for any technical know-how on your part. 

• High Availability for Web Hosting

The proper web host will ensure your online store is always live. You won’t have to worry about sudden crashes or technical difficulties since they have a team working 24/7 on server maintenance. This feature is crucial for online businesses where every second of malfunction can cost hundreds of dollars, or worse, customers. 

This also includes fast loading speed. As we all know, today’s customers hate nothing more than slow-loading websites. They’d rather just change stores than wait a few seconds to view the products. 

• Secure Transactions

There’s no faster recipe for disaster than to leave your website vulnerable to attacks, especially if you’re dealing with sensitive data like customers’ financial and personal information. If you want to maintain your customers and bypass any lawsuits, your online store’s security should be one of your main priorities. 

That’s one of the greatest things about proper web hosts. They’ll provide your online store with an authentic SSL certificate that safeguards users’ information and transactions. This certification will also protect your website against viruses and malicious attacks. 

• Seamless Shopping Cart and Check-Out Experience

Online shopping requires there is a shopping cart to add products to, but that, on its own, is not enough. The experience of adding products to the cart needs to be seamless. Customers should be able to add and specify the number of products they want, revisit the cart at any time, and make changes as they deem necessary. 

Once they’re done, they want the check-out experience to be just as smooth. There are various features that can be added to shopping carts and check-out pages, and a proper web host will take care of all that for you. 

• Efficient Inventory Management

Inventory management can be as easy or complicated as your web hosting service allows. Web hosting services dedicated to e-commerce businesses are centered around inventory management. This allows you to oversee, add, manage, and restock your inventory efficiently and seamlessly. 

• Key Data Backups

Have you ever seen your screen freeze up when writing an important document? These crashes often result in you losing important work, and having to start from scratch. 

Now, imagine that happening to your online store after spending hours writing and designing pages, listing products, or publishing offers and deals. Not a beautiful picture, right? That’s why you need an efficient e-commerce web host, as they provide frequent data backups just in case anything goes south. 

• High Scalability

If you’re getting into the e-commerce business, then your future plans will likely include scaling up. That’s why you need a web hosting service that gives you room to grow when you’re ready to. You’ll be able to run and manage multiple websites using the same admin panel. The same option works in reverse – you’ll also be able to downgrade your online store if need be. 

• 24/7 Access to Customer Service

As we’ve mentioned, every second of downtime will cost your online business dearly. Whenever you run into a problem in your online store, you need to be able to trust that you’ll get help with your issue right away. Thankfully, professional web hosts provide quality,  24/7 customer service to help you resolve all problems. 

• Additional Benefits for Web Hosting

Various e-commerce web host providers offer additional benefits, either included in your package or as add-ons. 

You can get help with website building, where you drag and drop blocks, choose from pre-designed templates, and customize your website as you desire. You can also get an email address that matches your domain, which will add legitimacy and professionalism to your business. 

Advanced web hosts can also help improve your SEO ranking by providing related services.

For an online store to be successful, it has to satisfy a few factors. It should load quickly, be easy to navigate, provide a seamless shopping cart and checkout experience, and offer secure payment gateways, alongside a few extra features. All of these factors are directly affected by the quality of the web hosting service you choose, so take your time in researching different providers until you find the one that will satisfy all your business needs.