How platforms like Hostway make small business more efficient

Hostway's platform offers online merchants the ability to create DIY shopping carts or allow the platform to create and then turn the store over to a merchant. I recently had the chance to chat with them about the platform.

Kristina: Tell me what the Hostway platform offers online merchants?

Aaron Hollobaugh, Vice President of Marketing, Hostway: The Do it Yourself platform allows you to build and manage your online store with their Merchant Manager, the shopping cart solution with everything you need to run and manage the ecommerce experience. You can also track inventory and sales online, offer special pricing, launch marketing campaigns and more. The Ecommerce Design option is where Hostway builds the platform for the business, making the process a breeze. Their ecommerce platforms also have two key add-ons; SSL Certificates and Merchant Accounts. The SSL Certificate encrypts customer's personal information before sending it across the internet and assures them it's safe to do business. The platform also gives customers the convenience of using their credit cards on your ecommerce site with a merchant account. A merchant account securely and automatically handles internet transactions for your business.

Kristina: As more consumers go online more merchants have issues with high traffic volumes - especially on days like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. What lessons can be learned from these issues?

Aaron: Make sure to do routine service checks of your ecommerce platform. One example of a routine service check would be to take a snap shot of your account for the past 12 month period and take a look to see where the traffic is at it's highest two months. Then do a test of 50% more traffic, 150% of that traffic, to make sure the site can handle large amount.

Tags: ecommerce platforms, ecommerce shopping cart, ecommerce tips, Hostway