You know you have a killer e-commerce business idea. The months spent shopping your model around to trusted friends and respected colleagues for feedback proved it.
So, why is your store experiencing so many issues during your short run in business?
E-commerce is a nuanced game; the reasons for your troubles could be many. Or, it could be your web hosting provider. To help you get to the root of the issue, here are 6 signs your e-commerce store needs better hosting.
1. You Can’t Handle Your Traffic
If your traffic is growing and your website’s slow to load, your server is probably being overloaded. Your hosting provider just can’t handle the traffic volume. Studies show over half of mobile website visits are abandoned if a site takes more than three seconds to load. Further, 79 percent of shoppers who are dissatisfied with a site’s performance say they’re less likely to purchase from that site in the future. Even if you’re paying bottom dollar for your provider, it’s hard to justify the affordability when it’s costing revenue.
2. It Was the Cheapest Hosting Service You Could Find
When you’re starting—or running—a business, cost factors into every decision. It’s understandable to have wanted to save money on web hosting because, on the surface, your site is either hosted or it’s not. But if you’re finding the cost of your hosting provider is substantially lower than other companies and hosting performance has been questionable at best, it’s time to start shopping around.
3. Security Issues
Been hacked? You’re not alone. Cybercrime is rampant these days. The average cost of a single cyber attack is $4 million, or $172 per record stolen. While some catastrophic attacks have driven the average up, your customers’ sensitive information shouldn’t be left to chance. If site security is a constant issue, it’s probably because you’re using a vulnerable hosting service. Quality web hosting providers have extra safeguards in place to ensure your site, and your information stays private. If you’re not exactly sure how your hosting provider handles cybersecurity ask these five questions to gauge their strength.
4. Unexpected (Routine) Downtime
All hosting providers (despite the uptime stats they advertise) experience downtime. But that doesn’t mean you should be satisfied with a provider that experiences routine downtime, especially during active shopping hours. Downtime ideally occurs during non-peak hours (e.g. 3 a.m.) not at Noon on a Tuesday. The more downtime your site experiences, the more you’ll turn off shoppers, hurt your search engine rankings and lose revenue. Curious how much money you might be losing to excessive downtime? Use this handy calculator to find out.
5. Poor Customer Support
If you’re paying bottom-of-the-barrel hosting prices, it might be tempting to put up with subpar customer service. But in reality, your hosting provider’s customer support is your only conduit to solving potential hosting issues. And, as discussed in the section above, site issues can be extremely costly. Imagine your site going down during a big sale or holiday weekend. Do you really want a hosting provider to wait until Monday morning to get back to you?
6. You Don’t Have the Features to Complement Your Growth
Solid web hosting providers offer plenty of custom features to complement a site’s growth—does yours? You should be able to upgrade your storage space, implement subdomains, have unlimited bandwidth and get routine (daily or weekly) site backups.
What to Look for in a Web Hosting Provider
If one or more of these signs are ringing all too true, you should get a new web hosting provider. Look for features opposite to the warning signs above. Check out all-in-one hosted e-commerce platforms offering everything from premium web templates to site encryption and various plugins to optimize a shopper’s experience.
With that said, any solid hosting provider should:
● Have a solid reputation for reliability and performance.
● Include a free domain name with the hosting package.
● Allow sufficient email boxes and give you full control over managing them.
● Offer a risk-free trial or money-back guarantee for a set usage period.
A lot goes into choosing the right web hosting provider. But the time you invest in researching and comparing different platforms is important. After all, no matter how strong your brand or store experience, you’ll fall flat if your visitors can’t access your site in a fast, hassle-free and secure manner.
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