So, you have an idea for setting up an e-commerce business, you have a solid business plan and have launched an e-commerce website. Have you checked its security checklist?
Nowadays, cyber threats are on the rise, especially e-commerce websites are their favorite targets. From phishing attacks to data breaches, the risk faced by e-commerce business owners is real and costly.
Security for an e-commerce website is non-negotiable. As online sales increase, security risks like payment fraud, takeover accounts, and malware injection into systems also increase. It is not only a loss of data, but company reputation damages and customer loss also become severe.
Not only security, but the slow loading speed of the website also irritates customers, causing a loss of potential customers.
This article covers all the checklists for an e-commerce store to ensure stable, secure, and efficient store management. By the end of this article, you will have actionable steps for optimizing your site for safe and speedy operation.
Checklist for a Speedy Website
Speed is not only a website performance metric for business owners. It is directly linked to impact conversions and SEO ranking factors. A slow website also decreases customer satisfaction. Even a few seconds’ delay in page load time significantly reduces conversions.
Reliable Hosting and Server
For any e-commerce store, a 24/7 website available and quick site loading play a significant role in increasing sales. A hosting provider affects how quickly your e-commerce site loads.
Always choose a hosting solution that works on SSD or NVMe storage and has well-optimised servers for an e-commerce platform. Servers have enough RAM to handle thousands of requests. It should have a low server response time.
Most people go with shared hosting due to the low price, but for a growing e-commerce store, VPS or cloud hosting is best for performance and scalability.
Optimize DNS resolution speed
DNS resolution speed is often neglected, which is the first step in loading a website. A slow DNS provider will delay every page request, even before the website content starts loading.
To evaluate DNS performance, you can run a DNS Speed test to find the best DNS server for your business. We suggest you try the Fastest DNS Test, which displays all nearby DNS speeds in milliseconds.
With the tool, you can identify a slow DNS server and compare multiple DNS server providers. So you can change the DNS provider to see a noticeable difference in website load speed.
Image Optimization
For an e-commerce business, high-quality images matter the most. Attractive images gain more attention from customers. But an oversized image kills the performance speed. Being an e-commerce store owner, you can compress images without losing quality.
Use a modern website format, like webp suitable for a website. Minimize CSS and JavaScript files for maximum page loading speed. Speed optimization is all about eliminating unnecessary weight of images, keeping the visual appeal balanced.
Related reading: How to Embed Images in Emails (Guide + Best Practices)
Checklist for Secure and Stable Website Operation
Security is the foundation of trust in an e-commerce website. Customers share sensitive information such as phone numbers, home addresses, and payment details. Stealing this data also causes customers to face long-term consequences.
SSL Certificates and HTTPS
For secure website operation, data transfer must be encrypted only between the website and users. There should not be a third party reading the data. An SSL certificate encrypts data.
Web owners must confirm that SSL is enabled across the entire site. An e-commerce store must use the HTTPS protocol for transferring data, which is necessary for maintaining cybersecurity.
Secure Payment Gateways
Use well-known PCI-DSS-compliant payment gateways. There is no need to store payment data on servers unless necessary.
To make the site safe, the administrator should enable two-factor authentication. In 2-Factor authentication, a code is sent via text message to log in; this enhances security and prevents unauthorized access.
Firewall and DDoS Protection
Web application firewalls (WAFs) protect your site from common attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting and bot abuse. DDoS protection makes sure your sites remain accessible even during heavy traffic or malicious attacks.
Most cloud hosting offers built-in WAF and DDoS protection. You just have to make sure they are properly configured.
Check Open and Exposed Ports
An open port may be an undetected security concern, whereas other ports, such as 80 ports used by HTTP and 443 ports used by HTTPS, are required to access the websites.
Disclosure of services makes attackers abuse the system. To get quick access to the open ports of your server, you can check the port status with an open port checker.
It detects the ports that are not necessary in your server, and then you can easily close them to prevent an attack by a hacker. Regularly check ports to improve overall infrastructure security, especially after server changes or deployments.
Regular Updates and Patch Management
Outdated software is one of the leading causes of security breaches. If your e-commerce platform is updated, the risk of security concerns on your website lessens. Plugins and extensions are regularly patched and updated for good website security.
Unused plugins must be removed to avoid background load. You can use an automation tool to schedule updates and send alerts to check and install them.
Uptime Monitoring
Stability is yet another important factor for online stores to remain stable, reliable and scalable even during high-traffic periods such as sales campaigns or festive seasons.
Website downtime means lost revenue. It is considered a loss in online terms.
Uptime means the server is available and the website is ready to load. Aim for 99.9% uptime. A few minutes of downtime during peak hours results in a significant loss.
Scalable Infrastructure
Traffic spikes are common in e-commerce stores. During sales seasons like Thanksgiving, traffic is higher, so your system must scale automatically without crashing. Website hosting providers can auto-scale cloud servers and a load balancer to handle increased traffic.
Database Optimization
The database of an online e-commerce store must be optimized. A poorly optimized database can slow down product searches, cart operations and checkout processes. You can regularly clean up databases and optimize indexes to keep a stable e-commerce store running.
Automated Backups
An unexpected failure can happen anywhere from hardware crashes to cyberattacks. It can suddenly shut off your backend system.
Automated backups can help you restore data quickly. Your data must be stored on another drive, or a backup server must be available in case of sudden disconnections.
Every e-commerce website owner should automate daily backups and store them off-site. Stability is not only about reducing downtime, but also about returning to normal operations when things go wrong.
Conclusion
A successful e-commerce store is built on a strong infrastructure. Three things matter most for retaining customers and increasing sales.
For an online business model, speed, security and stability matter. Speed is essential for engaging customers, security builds trust, and stability confirms your business stays online for most of the time. These factors uplift your e-commerce store and should never be neglected.
Using practical tools like Fastest DNS test and Port Checker helps an e-commerce business maintain fast speeds and website security. For an e-commerce business, follow the checklist outlined in the article so your store is ready to grow.
