Web space question

[alexcraw]

I'm not sure if this is the proper forum to post this, but I will go ahead anyway.

I am looking into building a web site for a friend who will sell furniture. This site will be updated regularly with pictures of items for sale and will have e-commerce capabilities. There should be the ability to contact the company and view stats of traffic. How will I know which hosting package to buy?

Can any body give a rough estimate of which type of site requires which amount of space. There are a number of starter packages available which range from 20Mb to 120Mb in web space.

How can I find out how much space a certain site takes up?

Cheers

Alex

[ktkendall]

I can answer the part about knowing how much space you will need. You can build the website on your PC or anyone's PC who will be building the website for you, and then after its ready to be uploaded you can see the total size of all the files that comprise your website, and you'll have a good idea that you need that much space and of course you want room for growth and to allow the e-commerce, but at least the size of all the files totaled togother that will need to be uploaded to create your site gives you a base line figure that you know you need at least that much and then some...

[mairving]

Unless he has a whole catalogue of furniture, he shouldn't need an incredible amount of space. The only thing that will take up space would be the images for the most part. Look over at this thread for other people's recommendations on hosts.

[alexcraw]

Thanks guys. That's certainly given me a few ideas as to the initial package to go for. I think the 100Mb site will do to begin and as the product range increases, so to might the site size. The website will not be the main selling location to the business, but as the business grows, he hopes to be selling everything online, eliminating the need for display premises.

Cheers Guys

Alex