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One of the most important issues with ecommerce hosting today is complying with industry security practices. A consortium of credit card companies created the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards in 2004. Originally guidelines for safeguarding consumers' private data they are now contractually enforced in most merchant agreements. These guidelines also make good business sense. Consumers are more comfortable spending money with companies that protect their credit card data.

The current 12 primary requirements are broken down into several sub-categories. These requirements range from technical criteria to well-defined business practices. Examples of technical criteria include the storage and transmission of encrypted information. In addition, a company is required to regulate the digital and physical accessibility to the data.

Any company that processes transmits, or stores credit card information should adhere to the PCI standards. Doing so can be quite a challenge, especially for small- and medium-sized companies. Fortunately there are many PCI-compliant ecommerce solutions from online shopping cart software to ecommerce hosting. These solutions guarantee compliance and take the burden off of sellers and allow them focus on the business they know best.

Small businesses trying to enter the ecommerce market need a trustworthy PCI-compliance hosting provider. Frequently, third-party evaluations of ecommerce hosting on opinion web sites are available. However, it is important to also request references. It is essential that a highly credentialed hosting provider be chosen due to the close business relationship between the two.

Even though security is an important feature to look for in ecommerce hosting, be sure to pay attention to the other benefits available in ecommerce solutions. Many hosting companies will partner with their customers and provide online shopping cart software as well. It is an enormous benefit when you hosting provider is knowledgeable about your software as well. They can often provide superior technical support. This translates to less downtime and web site at which consumers are comfortable shopping.

In creating a successful ecommerce store there are many things to face and solve. The easiest parts are to focus on product solution and what marketing strategy to pursue. However, to make your store more attractive to the buyer, you need to ease their mind in regards to their private information that they provide. You also need to comply with your credit card provider's merchant agreement. Therefore, it makes the most sense to partner with a secure and PCI-compliant ecommerce hosting provider.