eCommerce has been one of the fastest-growing industries in recent years. According to Forbes Advisor’s post on ‘38 eCommerce Statistics of 2023’, retail eCommerce sales amounted to approximately 5.717 trillion USD worldwide in 2022 and is estimated to go up to around 6.3 trillion in 2023.

During the pandemic, a lot of businesses had to close their brick-and-mortar shops and many turned their attention to their internet presence, including those that were not previously selling online. To be able to sell their goods or services, businesses focused on their own e-commerce sites.

As with any business-related task, the decision to build an eCommerce website should not be taken lightly. It involves resources like time as well as an in-depth knowledge of eCommerce, which some entrepreneurs do not have. So, many turn to managed hosting, where a team of experts run the technical aspects of the website.

While a lot of companies provide managed web hosting, one of the top web hosting services is WordPress. Many of its hosting providers are used by the most popular websites in the world, as seen in Namechk’s guide to the ‘Best Managed WordPress Hosting Providers (2023)’.

So, how do you pick your managed WordPress hosting? Read on for some of the things to look for:

1. Cost

To build and manage an eCommerce website can be expensive, so you will need to budget for it accordingly. Managed web hosting costs more than shared hosting, because of its benefits. In addition to the monthly rate for hosting, you also have to allot money for additional features that you may want on your website.

The good news is, many web hosting providers on WordPress have a range of rates and packages that you can choose from. Bluehost, one of the three recommended web hosts on WordPress’ official website, offers some of the cheapest packages. Iono and Hostinger are also some of the cheapest WordPress hosting providers with prices starting as low as $2.99 per month.

2. Speed and reliability

A fast loading time is important for your eCommerce website. The less waiting time, the better the user or customer experience and the less risk that users would decide to leave your website. Ideally, the pages should load in under two seconds. Longer than that and it may cause the user to lose interest and thus impact potential revenue. The provider should also be able to handle a large amount of website traffic without slowing down.

It is also important that the provider’s servers are very reliable. Uptime is important and you should aim for a guarantee of around 99.9% uptime. The more downtime, the more revenue you could potentially lose and you can also lose rankings in search engines. Some of the recommended providers who specialize in speed and reliability are Kinsta, Flywheel, and WP engine.

3. Security

One of the most important things to consider is security, especially with the rise in cybercrimes. One of the ‘6 Ways to Boost Your Customer Experience in eCommerce’ is to provide a safe and secure experience. Users, especially those who engage in online payments are very wary about leaving their information online. Breaches, selling or destruction of data are serious issues that can not only hurt your sales but your reputation as well.

You should ask your provider if they implement updated cybersecurity measures such as firewalls, DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protections, server hardening, SSL, and virus scanning to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data. They should also do daily backups for recovery in case of issues. Flywheel and WP engine are two of recommended sites for security.

Ease of use

Almost everyone uses the internet, and a lot of people prefer to interact with companies online. One of the important things to consider is how user-friendly your site is going to be.

A good website should be easy to use and navigate for users. The design and appearance of the website should be aesthetically pleasing, with important features easily seen and utilized. The responsiveness of the website is also important. BlueHost is renowned for being a beginner-friendly WordPress hosting solution, while GoDaddy is usually recommended as one of the best WordPress hosting for small businesses.

4. Quick and high-quality customer support

One of the main reasons for managed web hosting is the ease of leaving the technical aspects to a team of dedicated professionals. In case of problems, the hosting provider is the one to handle the technical issues.

Therefore, excellent customer support should always be available. Find out how the hosting providers handle customer support questions and requests, as well as their availability. 24/7 customer support is ideal especially if your website is to be accessed by users worldwide. Some providers have phone, chat and email options where you can reach their customer service team – and these options are crucial so that you troubleshoot any issues you may be having with your site. You can try to get in touch before picking the provider to see the quality of their customer support.

Examples of hosting providers with 24/7 customer support include BlueHost, Hostinger, SiteGround, and HostGator.

5. Preparing for website growth or scalability

As your business grows, your eCommerce website will need to keep up. You need to make sure you can add more features, plugins, or resources to your account as needed, without sacrificing your website performance. A good hosting provider can easily adjust or scale the website performance to handle your needs without interruptions or issues with productivity or performance.

WordPress is estimated to handle more than a third of the world’s websites, and therefore is not new to facilitating website growth. Most of the hosting providers on WordPress are able to scale as needed, with no issues, although some perform better than others. Some of the recommended ones include Cloudways, Kinsta, WP Engine, and Convesio.

With so many choices for WordPress hosting providers, it can be pretty daunting to pick one. Hopefully, this list was able to provide you with a guide to be able to choose the one that is right for your business and your eCommerce website.

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