Are you an online merchant shopping for a good ecommerce hosting provider? With the emergence of so many hosting companies offering various products these days, anyone can get lost. Before you plunge deeper in your search and make comparisons from one web host to another, see if they have everything that you need using this checklist I provided:
Customer service
Great customer service is about the closest thing you can get to long term ecommerce success. If your Ecommerce Hosting Comparison provider doesn't measure up, how can you trust doing business with them? See 7 Best Tools for Providing First-Rate Customer Service to find out if they have all that you need to reach them when you get in trouble.
Product catalogs, Inventory, Back orders
Your ecommerce host should be able to be offer flexibility depending on the number of products that you offer, and whether you intend to increase the products that you intend to sell in the future. Many providers offer hundreds of gigabytes of web space. Your online store should also be able to handle huge traffic despite a humongous web space. This is when bandwidth and server reliability matters. Your database should be able to house a huge number of products and customer information so you can efficiently manage your inventory. When products run out of stock, you should be able to coordinate with your shipping company and retailers through your web host. A plus would be your provider's ability to host multiple domains.
The first thing that comes to mind is an ecommerce shopping cart. Shopping carts need never be complicated or expensive. Anyone can customize a shopping cart that matches his ecommerce store's operations using only open source software. A good ecommerce web host should be able to merge an efficient shopping cart to your existing system or create a new one that allows customers to purchase with the least clicks possible.

Security and Integrity
There are few ecommerce web hosting providers who cannot provide enough security for your online store. Security should run in all aspects of your business, from your database encryption to credit card details being input, to tracking down customer location (IP geolocation). Look into SSL security certificate and other anti-fraud tools. This will help you get the better of credit card frauds and chargebacks.
Automation
Automation in most ecommerce processes is a must since time is essential. Does your ecommerce host automate the billing, accounting, report generation, and email response (autoresponder) processes? Remember that the little things that take your time can affect your business in a big way too.
Payment processing
Does your ecommerce web hosting company offer a merchant account with the ability to accept payments in various methods? Will you be able to accept foreign currency as well as payments in e-check, debit cards, and even MOTO? This is extremely important especially to merchants doing business internationally. The more payment types you can accept and process, the more likely your business will profit.
Your choice of the perfect Ecommerce Hosting Comparison provider will always be dictated by the needs of your online store. The more comparisons you make, the better you will know which is best for you. Some merchants also seek recommendations from other merchants, so why not do the same?
Gerri Bryce is a versatile technical writer specializing in general web content copywriting and consultancy for finance and ecommerce solution providers. She has contributed a massive number of articles for today's most popular technology, gadget, gaming, business, finance, and science news websites. She participates in a number of top webmaster, finance and merchant account forums. Currently, Ms. Bryce lives in Dallas, Texas. She keeps herself abreast with Web 2.0 and cutting edge Internet trends by attending business workshops, online meet-ups, and conferences for merchant account professionals. http://dataquestdigital.com.au/vps/