Cloud Computing in E-commerce – A Promising Future or Hype?

6 Benefits of Cloud Computing in E-commerce

Well, there are many advantages to going with cloud-based E-commerce. We will discuss the top 6 major benefits that can not only improve brand value but can also offer high ROI.

1. High Scalability

One of the prime benefits of cloud computing in E-commerce is scalability. Cloud computing is flexible, hence will adapt quickly to any change or growth in your business. Let’s understand this through an example. Suppose you own a brick-and-mortar store with a specific size. Now as your business grows you will be required to find a new storefront, as your current store will not be able to handle the growing customers and inventory. Needless to say, it’s never going to be easy to do all things on your own.

Moreover, if you have hosted all your information locally, you will have to invest in an upgraded server as per the need of the hour. But with cloud computing, things are different, the service providers will take no time to scale up, catering to your business needs. Apart from this, there can be a scenario where your business starts to decline. In this case, you can reduce bandwidth and all you need to pay for is the same.

2. Improved Stability

One of the prime benefits of cloud computing is performance dependability. It offers reliable and predictable performance even during peak traffic. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Black Friday sale, a promotional campaign, unplanned traffic during the introduction of a new product, the offering of huge discounts during a season-end sale, the beginning of a new advertisement campaign, and so on, cloud computing offers better stability. 

Apart from this, customers like to visit E-commerce websites in search of fresh offerings or deals. Many like to visit websites more regularly, especially the younger generation because of easy internet access even in some remote areas of the world. Now by hosting your IT infrastructure in data centers of these cloud services, you can prepare your website to offer consistent and predictable performance even during such traffic surges.

3. More Safety & Security

Trust from customers is difficult to earn and once lost it is hard to regain. This is why the safety & security of the customers stand paramount. As customers love a customized shopping experience it makes personalization a crucial factor for business growth. If you are targeting your users with personalized product recommendations, offers & discounts on wishlist items or the ones they like, and more similar practices that offer convenience, the chances are high, it will end up in a sale.

In order to do this, customers’ socioeconomic data, buying history & pattern, card details, etc have to be rested with E-commerce owners. To protect such vital information you are required to have a robust and reliable IT infrastructure that can easily tackle cyber attacks. If you fail to protect potentially sensitive personally identifiable information (PII), you will not only lose customers but can also encounter legal trouble from the customers’ end, apart from financial loss.

Cloud computing ensures superior security with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) certificate hosting. It also protects E-commerce sites from Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. Apart from this, most of the cloud service providers offer encryption methodologies for enhanced security.

4. High Speed

With cut-throat market competition, it becomes hard to retain users on your E-commerce website. This competition rises further when your website fails to load quickly. According to a  report by Unbounce, 70% of the customers admitted that the speed of the page directly impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer. Apart from this, half of the people admitted to giving up animation or video for faster loading time.

Another study from Portent reveals that 0-4 seconds is the best loading time for conversions. Not only this, the highest conversions were recorded where pages loaded between 0-2 seconds. From there onwards, the conversion rate starts dropping by an average of 4.42% with each additional second.

One of the best ways to decrease the loading time and increase the functionality of your website is to migrate to cloud computing. The thing is, speed can noticeably be slowed down or the site can become unresponsive during an unexpected hike in traffic. So by migrating to cloud computing you ensure that you have quick access to greater bandwidth, enhanced computational power, increased storage capacity, and so on. A faster E-commerce website will not only improve UX but will also help you generate more revenue.

5. Lesser Cost

Although cloud computing demands a steep initial investment, when we consider the benefits they rapidly become apparent compared to maintaining a complete physical network. You need not purchase in-house equipment. It means you can easily save money on power and space. This is so because cloud computing offers adjustable bandwidth that can be changed as per need. The money saved from this can be utilized in other crucial creative ventures like market research, brand development, social media marketing, etc.

Apart from this, cloud computing is easily upgradable. So you need not worry about the latest technology as you can take upgrades without any issues. On the other hand, if we consider physical network infrastructure it demands constant updates and physical hardware upgrades that not only cost you more but will also consume more time and space. As a result, there will be more overall cost in the long run.

6. Effective Data Analytics

Online sales provide you with the additional benefit of gathering customers’ data about activities on various channels. Whether it’s a website or social media, the information swamps your systems as a result it can be lost easily. You can go with cloud analytics in order to consolidate, store and share this data across multiple channels.

Cloud analytics refers to the practice of storing and analyzing data in the cloud to use it for driving meaningful business insights. It opens the door to data consolidation for better communication. One can easily combine all company data sources for creating a more comprehensive and useful picture. Whether it’s marketing, sales, or customer service, all teams can have quick access to data located in a single place regardless of their current location.

Apart from this, cloud analytics involves the processing of big data sets to look out for patterns, extract real-time information or forecast future demands quickly and easily.

Also Read: AWS vs Azure vs Google: Which Is the Best Cloud Platform For Your Business?

How Can Apptunix Help You in Cloud Computing for E-commerce?

Cloud services have profoundly changed the E-commerce marketplace at a rapid pace. It is estimated that by 2025 more than 100 zettabytes of data will be stored in the cloud. It means online businesses are migrating to the cloud. So If you are planning to grow your E-commerce business, cloud computing can help you a lot.

All you need is an end-to-end cloud-based E-Commerce app & software solution that can help you stand apart from market competitors. Apptunix is one of the top E-commerce app development companies in the world that has earned a solid market reputation by offering an online retail platform with cloud-based solutions to both local and global organizations.

Bonus Read: How Small Businesses Can Grow and Save Money with Mobile CloudApps?