Preparing Your Website For E-Commerce
If you plan to accept electronic payments for products/services/subscriptions
via your website, you will need to make sure your site is
hosted on a server that will allow you to conduct business
in a secure manner. For best results, we recommend that you
host
with us to keep everything under one umbrella. However,
if you are comfortable with your current host, be sure to
ask them the following:
- Is my site capable of using the Secure Sockets Layer
protocol? If so, how much will it cost to install an SSL
Certificate for my domain?
- Since I plan to sell my products/services over the Internet,
I may need a shopping cart software package that requires
me to install a database. Does my hosting account allow
me to create at least 1 database that is accessible only
by me?
- Does my site contain a static IP address?
If your host answers "NO" to any of these questions,
or the cost of doing business is more than you expected, you
may want consider switching to a web hosting service provider
that is capable of handling your website. Smaller hosting
companies are sometimes not designed to handle sophisticated
websites such as those accepting payments through a true online
merchant account. We are confident that our hosting
service is equipped to handle your website, no matter
what size.
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Ask the professionals
Can I use any type of hosting account with my merchant
account? In short, no. If you plan to connect to
an actual payment gateway, you will need to do so in a secure
fashion using SSL encryption. The payment gateway will need
to be able to indentify your website, which means you will
need a dedicated IP address. Some hosting accounts do not
offer these capabilities.
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