Which ecommerce hosting service provides the best support?

I use 702 Cool Domains ( http://www.702CoolDomains.com ). I have a long history with them because, at one time, I designed web sites for clients and found their prices to be the most reasonable for what my clients needed. My clients tended to be home-based, startup businesses, looking for deals. They were able to get a domain name, web hosting, blog hosting, unlimited e-mail aliases, and DNS control for the cost of a typical domain name. I host my personal and business sites with them.

This question seems to be coming up a lot on Focus.com. I recommend Bluehost. There has never been a question that their support team could not answer. They are extremely knowledgeable and usually answer the phone within seconds of calling. I can not recall ever having to wait more the 10-20 seconds to talk to someone. Everything is included. You get unlimited domains, unlimited file tranfers, and unlimited space. So you could host multiple different ecommerce sites. And their price is extremely reasonable. Between $6.95 and $7.95 depending on how long you sign up for.

Click here to learn more: http://www.bluehost.com/track/kfawcett/tellmemore?page=tell_me_more.html

There are numerous companies that will help you sell over the internet. Every one of them will promise to give you their very best and tell you they can help in all or nearly all of what you wish to do. I have seen many of their promises fail either right away or down the road. These companies promise great sales at very little cost and then start with all their extra services which end up costing companies much more of their profit than originally expected. Large and small companies get tied of this and either go in house or go to another company.

That being said, the main thing to look at is CAN the company help promote, sell, deliver, and protect the specific products that your company is or wants to sell. Are they protecting not only your company’s interest but your customer’s interests? Will there be game playing with the fees they charge your company and are they using the right tools to make it easy for YOUR customers to buy from you.

Companies are in business to make money first and everything second. Since I started in this business in 1998 I have seen companies grow into something that at one time wanting to help other companies and make themselves money to companies that just want to make money.

The biggest item to look for is can they properly handle and sell your product(s) and give your legitimate customer excellent service, as well as protect your product(s) and customers. If they can without sugarcoated promises, hire them.

Al C

There are literally hundreds of companies out there capable and experienced at hosting ecommerce stores but you probably want to go for one of the bigger guys because they will have the infrastructure and staff to support you. The far bigger question you need to answer FIRST though is SECURITY. If you want your ecommerce customers to pay you with credit cards you MUST be compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. (PCI-DSS). 100% of online merchants must be compliant with these standards by July 1st 2010. (See https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ ) All of your concerns regarding which host is best are irrelevant until you make a decision about which one of the following two routes you intend to go:You need to decide to

either: (A)

Host your ecommerce site at a company that can provide real PCI Compliance. There are a lot of guys out there who will tell you they do this but few that are real.This reduces your choices of hosting to about 10 companies in the US who really know this stuff and it is VERY expensive. (hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars/month) One very good host for this is GSI in Kansas City (www.gsihosting.com)

OR (B)

Outsource your credit card handling to a 3rd Party hosted solution like CRE Secure (www.cresecure.com).and completely avoid the need and expense for PCI Compliant hosting. With CRE Secure you can host wherever you wish. There are a number of outsourced or hosted payment solutions out there but CRE Secure is the only one that has patented HTML Clone technology that duplicates the `look and feel' of your website so you maintain the customer experience. I disclose I work for the company and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Once you decide on which route to go, then you can figure out where you want to host based on the substantially different hosting requirements your ecommerce site will need. Both routes will get you PCI Compliant. But option (B) is much faster, easier and much less expensive.