Reliability
Experience has taught many online business owners that reliability is probably the most important factor in deciding who they will host their web sites with. There are dozens of companies that offer business and personal web site hosting for as low as $3.00 to $4.00 per month. It's great to have such a low monthly cost but if your web site goes down for any length of time it can cost you more than you will ever save. Reliability trumps cost regardless of the quality of your online shopping cart or how low your product prices are.

Uptime reliability is a fact that cannot be taken lightly when you establish your eCommerce business. Consider for instance hosting companies that claim to have a 99 percent uptime. This means that you could be down for 3.65 days every year! How much money does your eBusiness lose in that amount of time?

Support
User support is critical in establishing your web site as a successful eCommerce business. The most important thing to look for is timeliness of response. If the company does not have a 24/7 support system then find another one. This may be critical because your site, your online business may encounter unforeseen issues at any time. Being able to get the problem resolved in a timely manner is critical. Remember, time lost is profit lost. Your online business cannot afford to wait for the business week to start so that someone can fix the problem when they get around to it.

Accessibility
Accessibility is the other criterion that is significant for eCommerce web site hosting. What type of access do get to your web site? Can you upload files directly or do you have to send the files to the hosting company first? How easy is it to setup emails, folders and other features that you need to use? Is the system that the hosting company uses compatible with your online shopping cart?

These are important considerations that you must take into account. Before you decide which company you host your web site with try to find out how reliable they are. Just because a friend uses them does not mean they are always reliable. Be willing to change companies if the one you are using is unreliable. Online shopping carts need to be on reliable servers because no matter how good the shopping cart software is, down time is just like having the doors closed.