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In 2004, a group of credit card companies banded together to create the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards. Complying with those standards is critical in ecommerce hosting, as these guidelines are now usually contractually enforced in merchant agreements. Compliance also is good for your business, because consumers hearing about credit information security breaches want to spend their money with companies who protect their data.

The current standards follow under 12 major requirements, each of which is broken down into many sub-requirements. These requirements run the gamut from technical guidelines to well-defined business practices. Technical requirements include encrypting data as it is stored and transmitted. Additionally, a company must control who has access to the data, both digitally and physically.

While adhering to the PCI standards is a must for any company storing, transmitting or processing credit card information, adherence can be difficult for small and medium-sized companies. The simplest way to deal with this is to purchase one-stop ecommerce hosting -- a package of ecommerce solutions that handles everything from transaction processing to online shopping cart software. This moves the problem of compliance off sellers, guarantees PCI compliance, and lets business get back to selling.

A reliable PCI-complaint hosting provider is mandatory for any company planning to enter the ecommerce segment. Most of the times it is easy to evaluate an ecommerce hosting with the help of a third party opinion website, however, it is always helpful to check for some references also. As this kind of a business relationship is very intricate, it always helps to choose a hosting provider with a proven track record.

Make sure to consider the other benefits available in ecommerce hosting, not just the security capabilities that are available in all ecommerce solutions. Most hosting companies will provide online shopping cart software to their partners as well. It is a great help when your hosting provider is familiar with the software packages that you use. This allows them to provide the best technical support, which results in less downtime and provides you a web site that your customers are comfortable with shopping there.

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.