E-commerce success depends on the customer and the customer prospects experience in the web site. Much of the user experience relies on the speed of website access. Major factors to consider in every e-commerce business are space available in the server, and allowance of data transfer. Other factors include support, server uptime and email accounts.

Websites are hosted in the servers. Normal hosting packages offer allocation of space in the server often much more than the requirement. Small business hosting their websites needs utmost 5 to 10 megabytes of space in the server. E-commerce hosting packages offer large server spaces as a part of the package. This space may not serve any purpose unless the website is highly graphic oriented or aimed at hosting animation and multimedia galleries. It is important to note that the server space paid in the hosting package is likely to lie underutilized in the great deals offered.

Allowances of data transfers are similar to server space allocation. This factor determines the amount of data that can be transferred during customer visits or information is requested from the server. Data transfers are high in websites with extensive graphics and flash animations. Such extensive sites utilize less than few gigabytes in the form of data transfers. Huge visitors drive data transfers high but the fact that high traffic is experienced by only few sites is the reality. Data transfer allowances can always be increased in need.

E-commerce can be defined as a usage of computers to migrate your business online to support business related transactions. Common usage of E-commerce is visible in marketing, order capture and processing, order fulfillment, end to end inventory management and accounting transactions.

E-commerce is a powerful tool for direct marketers. It provides credibility to the transaction makes communication an inexpensive entity and ensures direct contact with the customers. E-commerce cannot be defined as a direct marketing tool as the complete functionality of its reach is yet to hit the customers.

Elements of a website design can be categorized into accessibility, advertising, aesthetics, content, navigation, speed and updates. Various components and plug-ins are available in the market but the usability of the components or plug-ins improves user experience in cases where the component is integrated into the theme of the business. The important factor is the customer and the website must be customer centric.

Extensive advertising and irrelevant advertising is bound to turn away customers. It affects the loading speed, performance of the website. Advertisement should not overpower the content of the website. Relevant minimal advertising serves as a useful tool to improve search engine rankings and visibility of the website.

Aesthetics and content are mutually inclusive factors of a website. Consistent format with a identical look and feel reduces the learning curve of the customer in site navigation. Content presented in consistent format with appropriate information acts as a trigger to convert the user visit to a sale.

Speed is another important factor of consideration. It is affected by two parameters – graphics and server. Overuse of graphic content increases loading time and a judicious approach must be observed in including video, animations in the content. Content update ensures fresh content and an attractive factor for customers to revisit the site.