Cloud eCommerce: 10 Ways Cloud Computing Increases Business Productivity

Cloud computing has transformed how businesses and customers access or store data. With ‘cloud’, small and medium eCommerce businesses can instantly set up enterprise-class services in a heartbeat.

Cloud eCommerce helps businesses integrate multiple technologies & tools to enhance user experience and reduce costs simultaneously. According to Forrester, companies can reduce sales costs by up to 90% by moving customers to an online self-service environment.

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Power of Cloud-Based eCommerce

Over the last decade, several companies adopted cloud computing strategies. From running an application on a local server to optimizing workflows with cloud-based production scheduling software, to hosting an application over remote cloud servers, businesses have seen various benefits of cloud computing technologies.

For instance, the number of users shopping online balloons during holiday events such as Cyber Mondays, Black Friday, and Double 11 (Single’s Day). And to cater to all these customers requires a sophisticated infrastructure so that services don’t collapse.

By using a cloud-based data processing platform, Alibaba Cloud provides uninterrupted services and manages 1.98 million computational jobs during Alibaba’s Singles Day sale which reached a record-breaking $74 billion in 2020.

Additionally, many experts predict that adopting cloud computing will continue to define leaders and losers across various industries. Especially in the eCommerce sector, where loading speed and downtime are critical.

According to a 2019 forecast by Gartner, public cloud services revenues will grow by 81.2% within five years, reaching $354.6 billion by 2022.

eCommerce cloud platforms are a solid framework for the adoption of advanced technologies like quantum algorithms, advanced visualization, and deep learning.

Cloud computing in eCommerce will revolutionize eCommerce businesses, especially small-medium enterprises. While bigger corporations can buy and maintain their own data centers, smaller organizations look for every opportunity to keep their costs down and dispersed. 

Cloud computing provides this liberty to small-medium-sized businesses with pay-as-you-go models. This means eCommerce businesses looking to explore opportunities in VR/AR, AI-based eCommerce, and self-service eCommerce can scale without a large upfront investment.

Cloud eCommerce In Enterprise-Level Function

Here’s a list of enterprise-level functions where cloud eCommerce plays an important role:

1. Data backups
2. Virtual desktops
3. Web application development
4. Big data analytics
5. Disaster data recovery
6. Software development and testing

Instead of buying expensive hardware and maintaining data centers, eCommerce businesses can adopt a cloud eCommerce solution that’s not only cost-efficient but also brings agility, scalability, and business continuity.

Before discussing how cloud computing can increase e-commerce business productivity, let’s have a look at cloud computing architecture, its service, and deployment models to get a better idea of which models suit your business.

Cloud eCommerce Services Architecture

eCommerce cloud solutions usually have a complex multilayered architecture, including hardware and software resources, servers, business layers, data processing, and resource management. 

However, service and deployment models usually categorize the architecture. The choice of deployment models depends on the objectives your organization wants to achieve, security requirements, budget restraints, and funds availability.

For instance, if the company has sensitive data to process, it will invest in a private or hybrid model. Similarly, businesses having data with low sensitivity and high processing will opt-in for public cloud deployment.

Here are deployment models organizations can choose for increasing their eCommerce business productivity:

Deployment Models

1. Private cloud deployment

This cloud deployment is not shared with the public rather it’s shared with a few people. It usually offers strong security and is better for eCommerce cloud platforms or applications with sensitive information. Usually, companies serving one or multiple B2B clients can benefit from private cloud deployment.

2. Public cloud deployment

Any activity performed by the user over the internet is affiliated with the use of the public cloud. This cloud deployment involves the use of paid or free technology provided by a third party to the public. It brings a lack of security, vendor lock-in, and limited control, which is usually a disadvantage for cloud eCommerce.

3. Hybrid cloud deployment

The hybrid deployment model addresses the disadvantages of public cloud deployment. It allows eCommerce platforms to avoid vendor lock-in by distributing data between private and public clouds of several providers.

4. Community cloud deployment

The community cloud deployment model is like a private cloud model with a restriction to a single community. This means clients with similar regulations or similar legal frameworks will be placed in the same community cloud model. For example, the Fintech community deployment model or healthcare deployment model.

Service Models

Different eCommerce cloud service models allow businesses to select several services they are willing to deploy on the cloud themself and how many they want somebody else to take care of. There are three different cloud service models listed below:

1. Software as a Service (SaaS)

In SaaS, cloud vendors handle all components of the eCommerce cloud solution, which is ideal for companies that want to hand over all IT equipment to third parties.

2. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) 

In this model, cloud vendors provide limited services like storage and virtual machines while the eCommerce business handles data, runtime, middleware, applications, and the operating system.

3. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The PaaS model is often used for developing, testing, and managing applications. The users only have to handle applications and data while the vendors provide the rest of the architecture.

Must read: COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO CLOUD-BASED APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

10 Advantages of Cloud Computing In eCommerce

The impact of cloud computing on eCommerce is huge. Here are a few ways how it boosts business productivity:

1. Increased data security

With cloud service providers employing highly efficient data security protocols, the chances of data theft decrease. According to a survey, hackers are targeting small-medium businesses, and SMEs can’t afford to have a cybersecurity team built in-house. The best way to deal with this is to deploy on the cloud.

2. Enhanced collaboration

With cloud computing, users from different parts of the world can access the same data simultaneously. This can improve collaboration across the teams and help them perform their operations more efficiently.

3. Easy data recovery

Damaged or lost storage devices can be an immense problem for your eCommerce business when local servers store all the data. Lost data could cost a fortune to the eCommerce company. However, with all the data stored in the cloud-based server, the data loss becomes impossible, as you could easily retrieve it without worrying about storage devices.

4. Scalability

Imagine your expensive marketing team working hard to achieve peak traffic on your website by hitting the sweet pricing spot during the holiday shopping season or by launching a successful email marketing campaign. But the worst thing is if your servers aren’t able to handle this traffic and the website collapse, resulting in a loss of potential revenue. 

eCommerce cloud computing allows you to consume server capacity as you need it - the best part! You will only pay for what you use.

5. Cost efficiency

For SMB eCommerce, it is difficult to pay significant hardware installation charges, so having a pay-as-you-go or subscription-based model is ideal for many players. Deploying on the cloud can help you reduce operational costs and infrastructure costs.

6. Speed optimization

Page load speed and downtime are critical for your eCommerce platform. According to the Page Speed Loading report, page speed affects the willingness to buy for 70% of users. In cloud deployment, the page load speed decreases significantly, which is vital for eCommerce businesses.

7. Reduced carbon footprint

When a company uses the cloud computing platform to scale up or down, the only thing changes is the server capacity. This reduces the chances of leaving a lot of carbon footprints, unlike the in-house deployment.

8. Control over data

With data stored in cloud servers, multiple users can access the same data files, making it easier for the business to use data for different purposes at the same time. This specifically helps businesses in analyzing user data for business enhancement.  

9. Remote operations

Since the data on the cloud is accessible from anywhere in the world, small and medium businesses can easily work with remote teams without increasing the overhead of maintaining in-house teams.

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10. Access to best technologies

Cloud computing allows small and medium businesses to get access to enhanced tools and technologies that were previously accessible to big corporations only. This gives your eCommerce business a chance to act faster and compete with other eCommerce giants.

eCommerce Cloud Software Development

Now that we have learned about cloud computing, its architecture, and its advantages for the eCommerce business, it is time for you to take action and build your eCommerce software or deploy your already-built eCommerce cloud platform. 

InvoZone offers a vast variety of eCommerce cloud software development services ranging from cloud storage provider selection to cloud migration, application re-architecting, and native cloud-based development.

With expertise in eCommerce solution development and cloud computing, our teams of software development experts help clients in building, maintaining, and deploying cloud-based eCommerce solutions. 

If you are looking to migrate to a cloud-based eCommerce platform, talk to our experts to discuss which strategy is optimal for your platform.