Ecommerce businesses need improvisation and adoption of new technologies, though they don’t face many of the issues brick-and-mortar retail stores do. It’s all driven by technology, and that’s why reliable outsourced ecommerce website development services are so essential. Small online businesses are in competition with the big ones such as Amazon and Alibaba, so they must maintain a competitive edge in their target market. For that, they need to ensure they aren’t left behind on the technology bandwagon.
Cloud computing has evolved from just an elitist technology to a necessity for businesses, with the Covid-19 pandemic clearly accelerating the need to adopt advanced digital solutions for data storage and processing, communication, employee management, customer relationship management, human resources and employee communication. Cloud computing can help businesses surpass geographic barriers and infrastructural hurdles.
Why You Should Think of Cloud Computing
Easy Accessibility of Data within Your Organization
With cloud hosting, all your data is securely stored in servers, which means that the data can be accessed from any device in your organization by authorized personnel via password. You don’t need to exhaust the internal servers of your organization or make expensive technical upgrades. Cloud computing can also help e-commerce businesses.
Expand Globally from Just One Physical Location
With a limited infrastructure, an ecommerce business can operate globally and maintain an international presence with the help of cloud computing. They can get customers from different geographic locations. Cloud-based apps can help ecommerce businesses to maintain strong consumer relationships as well. This can help build loyalty and generate further sales.
Employee Flexibility Puts Less Strain on Resources
Your staff can work from home using laptops or cell phones with internet connectivity to access data on the cloud and answer customer queries, market products, and perform other tasks. It adds flexibility as employees can work from anywhere and you don’t need to set up/maintain physical office infrastructure.
Save on Expensive Infrastructural Changes
Ecommerce businesses don’t need to spend on expensive software and IT infrastructure. In addition to being a cost-effective solution, cloud computing offers the required tools plus data storage and doesn’t compromise on your efficiency.
Two or world’s largest e-commerce companies are also cloud providers – Amazon and Alibaba. You can use cloud solutions on a pay-per-use basis so you can pay only for the services you use.
Scalability to the Next Level
Cloud computing also boosts scalability. You can increase your IT requirements or reduce them based on changing business needs. With the cloud, it is relatively easy to scale.
Improving Operational Efficiency
With the cloud taking care of your data storage and operational software, your servers are left with more storage capacity and your internet connectivity gives you greater bandwidth. This can help you process customer orders faster and improve the speed of your e-commerce website. Greater storage space equates to faster performance.
Remember that research states that 40% of shoppers online would leave a web page if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds. If prospective customers are dissatisfied with your website, it is unlikely they would visit it again. Cloud computing frees up enough resources for you to improve your website speed.
Redundancy Is Built In to Ensure Efficiency
With cloud computing, the inevitable question of data security arises. Of course, advanced cloud platforms do come with redundancy built in to avoid data loss. They provide the tools for backing up and securing the data. With redundancies built in, company operations can be resumed even if some data loss occurs, because there is a backup for everything.
How to Adopt Cloud Computing for Your Ecommerce Business
Each ecommerce business has its own unique requirements and there are plenty of cloud frameworks out there. You need to pick the one that suits your business in terms of the factors mentioned above. Cost savings and profitability are essential, along with flexibility and organizational efficiency. There are various aspects to consider when it comes to identifying the best platform for your ecommerce business.
- First, you need to visualize your requirements. What exactly are your reasons for taking your business to the cloud? Are they just scalability and flexibility, or are you looking to expand sales?
- Next, evaluate the adjustments you need to make in your business to accommodate cloud computing. Of course, an ecommerce solutions provider can help you with that. You also need to consider SaaS (software-as-a-service), PaaS (platform-as-a-service) and IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) solutions. You can also consider outsourcing solutions.
- With the help of your cloud provider or outsourcing partner, you need to figure out what your business needs to do to adapt to the cloud. Set clear criteria for satisfactory adoption.
- The next step would be to ensure everything goes according to plan. You must also hold on to the acceptance criteria.
- Once you have successfully deployed the cloud in your ecommerce business, you need to give your staff time to adapt to the new working procedures. You may need to train your employees and carry out demos to further optimize the cloud system, and constantly evaluate the results.
- An ecommerce business outsourcing provider can ensure that these steps are followed. They can also conduct constant evaluation and help with all the IT architecture redesign and infrastructural setup.
Ecommerce businesses have challenges. Partnering with an ecommerce website development company can ensure the technical support you need to help overcome them.
