How to Use Cloud-Based Software to Improve your E-commerce

Image by Wynn Pointaux from Pixabay

Cloud e-commerce is a broad term for e-commerce software solutions based on cloud technology. With cloud e-commerce, you essentially outsource all your e-commerce IT needs, using remote servers and platforms rather than local ones to run various applications, including those for both back-end and store-front aspects of your e-commerce store.

Cloud e-commerce solutions like cloud-based phone systems for small businesses and email automation tools are growing wildly popular because of the numerous advantages they have over traditional e-commerce software.

They allow you to save cost, enhance security, and minimize the technical requirements for running your e-commerce business.

In this piece, we’ll show you exactly how to explore these advantages to improve your e-commerce business.

5 Ways to Improve Your E-commerce Business With Cloud Technology

1. Promoting Scalability

The success of e-commerce businesses heavily depends on scalability. With increased scalability, you can ramp up or wind down your business processes with ease. As such, you can easily adjust your operational cost to maintain a good profit margin between peak periods and off-seasons.

Unlike with traditional e-commerce software solutions, you don’t have to purchase tools that sit idle for most of the year, put to use only during peak periods like Black Fridays and Thanksgiving.

With many cloud e-commerce solutions based on flexible monthly subscriptions, you can easily adjust the functionalities and capacities that you pay for, even during unpredictable periods.

2. Increase Website Speed

The first few seconds a new visitor spends on your website is enough for them to form a first impression of your brand. 40% of online shoppers will click away from your webpage if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. On top of that, 79% of buyers who’ve had an unpleasant experience with your site’s performance will most likely never return.

Powerful cloud-based e-commerce solutions allow you to deploy fast-speed, state-of-the-art customer-end solutions at a cost-effective price. As such, you can enjoy higher conversion and retention rates, leading to customer satisfaction towards your business.

3. State-Of-The-Art Security

Rather than handling all your IT infrastructure’s security needs on your own, you can partially or entirely migrate it to cloud-based.

You can deploy cloud-based authentication services for your on-premises devices, or use cloud-based software for business altogether that come with adequate security support from the provider.

When you host your applications on cloud-based servers, you essentially outsource all the security needs that come with them to world-class cloud experts.

The platforms help you verify third-party certifications to prevent fraudulent transactions and conduct regular backups to prevent costly data losses, among other security measures you need to verify with your provider.

4. Reducing Costs

Cloud technology can help your e-commerce business to save money in more than one way. For instance, it helps you streamline your hardware and software infrastructure by offering on-demand features and functions so you’ll only get to pay for what you use. That way, you can avoid solutions that are either redundancies or overkill.

This flexibility can help companies save up to 70% of costs compared to traditionally static IT networks.

Cloud-based services also offer all-inclusive services at a flat rate to cover various needs. You’d spend a whole lot more hiring in-house staff to take care of these needs.

5. Easy Accessibility

Another great advantage of cloud-based e-commerce solutions is their significantly greater ease of accessibility.

Cloud-based platforms remove the geographical limitations of software infrastructure, giving people quick, easy access to both front-end and back-end applications from anywhere in the world.

Thus, you’ll have greater freedom to expand your operations across borders and regions. This empowers you to reach out to more customers with excellent service delivery.

Types of Cloud E-commerce Services You Should Consider

With these advantages in mind, you now have a good picture of how to use cloud solutions to grow your e-commerce business. When considering what platforms to deploy, here’s a quick guide to help you determine the best type of platform to handle specific e-commerce software needs:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

These are platforms such as Amazon and Microsoft that provide flexible remote servers for running data centers and virtual servers.

With these tools, you don’t need to set up, maintain, and secure data centers on-premises, and they also allow you to scale up or wind down your server capacities on-demand.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

This is a collective for cloud-based platforms providing tools and functionalities for e-commerce sites to develop, launch, and maintain applications.

Their readily available cloud-based computing solutions allow you to create applications on-demand from start to finish. Some prominent PaaS include Google App Engine, Cloudsuite, and Salesforce.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Unlike PaaS, SaaS offers prebuilt cloud-based applications like cloud-based phone systems that you can integrate into your e-commerce software ecosystem. They’re available on a subscription basis – you’ll only get to pay for them when you need them.

As such, they offer you the flexibility and resourcefulness to cater to your customer’s unique needs satisfactorily at all times. Some well-known SaaS for e-commerce includes NetSuite and slack.

Summary

With cloud-based tools, you can run your e-commerce business with greater flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. You have the flexibility to outsource many – if not all – aspects of your e-commerce business, from product analysis to delivery, customer care, and everything in-between.

Also, you’ll no longer have to worry about securing your business, as cloud platforms cover you with state-of-the-art security solutions.