How eCommerce Can Fly High with Cloud Services |
Posted: June 13, 2017 |
From ordering pizza to booking flight tickets to watching live concerts happening half way across the globe, these are just a few of the countless miracles we perform all day, with our electronic devices at the tap/click of a button. As convenient and empowering it may be for users, equally mindboggling is the complexity and the scale of technologies that enable such acts. Today, with data centers running larger than football fields and computing devices more powerful than the supercomputers 25 years ago, we live in a world where data is the new commodity upon which all businesses rely. Especially for a business like eCommerce that is entirely based on the direct relation with a large number of customers. To have your website built by any eCommerce web development service is one thing and to succeed is entirely different. Yes, custom eCommerce web development when coupled with innovative digital marketing techniques can certainly make you stand out and provide an edge over thousand others, but unless you are able to swiftly handle your customers, mediocrity, if not failure is bound to happen. And it is no coincidence that almost every successful business you see today is connected to cloud in one way or another. So, let’s take a look at how your eCommerce venture too can exploit the features of cloud, but before we do, here are some basics first: Technology, as many would assume, is a fairly complicated and highly resource intensive thing to create. And it is simply not feasible or rather possible for each enterprise to accumulate all such technological and computing resources that they might need. For instance, imagine that you have a website that records 1000 visitors every hour and so it has been designed accordingly to handle such traffic. But now you decide to organize a sale every month which is expected to bring 10,000 visitors every hour. What do you do? Invest largely in scaling up your infrastructure, which will be used only once a month? This is where the cloud comes in. Large enterprises like Amazon and Microsoft, with their huge cash-pile and technological supremacy, create large pools of such technological resources that everyone can rent when required. Types of Cloud Services:‘Cloud’ is a vast term that encapsulates a whole variety of services that can be categorized as: #1 CostSince hosting and managing ones’ eCommerce application on the cloud is much cheaper than creating all the required infrastructure upfront, cloud services remain the first choice for new online retail ventures. Even for established enterprises, the cost of creating, maintaining, and constantly updating relevant hardware and software drain a lot of time and resources, much greater than that of using virtual means. #2 Risk FactorE-commerce, being a highly customer-centric business, faces a peculiar problem. Suppose you just started your business and have no idea how much footfall you will receive. Now the question is- how much backend infrastructure do you develop? If you overestimate, not only will you end up investing huge dollars that matter, but if customers don’t show up, the losses will be equally high. However, if underestimated and more customers show up, it will not only result in financial losses but you may lose your market reputation. The only way out of this problem is to use cloud services. #3 ScalabilityThe enterprises that provide cloud services have virtually unlimited storage and computing resources to offer. This gives eCommerce companies the liberty to expand their operations without worrying about the backend infrastructure. Also, since the billing is per-usage, there is no chance of resource leakages, and you will pay only for what you actually use. #4 PerformanceNo matter how robust in-house servers you have, chances are you cannot match the 99.95% uptime guaranteed by Amazon Web Services (AWS)- the most popular cloud service. From speed and efficiency to reliability and flexibility, these services are built from grassroot level to accommodate all the requirements of potential users and are known to be highly fault-tolerant. #5 SecuritySince E-commerce collects a lot of sensitive data including credit card details, any breach of security is bound to cause serious damages. Thankfully, cloud services employ state-of-the-art security measures and only the finest of cyber experts are tasked with managing such platforms, which is impossible if you do everything in-house. #6 AnalyticsBasically, eCommerce is all about observing consumer behavior over time and accurately predicting what they might be interested in next. When you host your E-commerce application on any cloud, you are also provided with an access to a range of sophisticated analytical tools to help you get a better hold of your business. These tools, when applied on data collected over time, can reveal valuable patterns of your customers and inventory, which you can leverage to optimize your business operations. With so much to offer and virtually no drawbacks, cloud services is a technology change that every eCommerce must adopt, the sooner the better because the earlier you get on board, the more opportunities will be waiting for you to explore.
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