The exhaustive task of managing, storing, and analyzing data makes businesses opt for cloud technologies. The shift to the cloud allows these businesses to manage and process data for real-time insights effectively. To fulfill the growing demand and stay competitive, retailers must extend their reach to customers with multiple stores and manage the entire supply chain. Integrating cloud computing in the retail sector has paved the way for more businesses to opt for e-commerce platforms, thereby improving efficiency and end-user experience.
One of the primary reasons that most retailers are keen on building their online presence to drive sales and growth is the shift in consumer shopping habits. Thanks to the pandemic, we have seen a massive shift from in-store to online. Shifting to the cloud has helped save time and resources and allowed businesses to grow their e-commerce platform.
8 Ways Retail & E-Commerce Benefits from Cloud Computing
- Scalability: Cloud computing allows to build an e-commerce presence quickly and helps businesses grow. The scale-up or down model perfectly syncs with the retail sector’s needs. Plus, on-premise servers add to IT and infrastructure costs, which can be allocated toward more productive areas using the cloud. The retail sectors stand to gain much more by showcasing their business on an e-commerce platform and gaining brand recognition soon.
- Speed: Speed plays a huge role in building an online presence, specifically if you are in the e-commerce, retail supply chain sector. A recent study showed that almost 40% of customers abandon a webpage if it takes more than three seconds to load. For e-commerce websites, speed is of paramount importance, and cloud computing can offer great computational power, storage, and bandwidth.
- Stability: E-commerce websites and retail sectors showcasing their products in e-commerce can mean only one thing: new product launches and new ad campaigns, which translates to a spike in website traffic. By opting for e-commerce cloud hosting, businesses can achieve superior stability while online retail. The cloud offers state-of-the-art data centers where you can rest assured that your business functioning will remain unperturbed.
- Security: With e-commerce portals, the question of safety is of utmost importance. The customers must feel that your platform is safe to make payments and they are transmitted securely. Cloud computing offers superior security, and advanced tools help protect your business from malicious attacks, thus building customers’ confidence and showcasing your brand as reliable online and standing out from the crowd.
- Cost-effective: For retailers just starting to build their online presence, choosing an e-commerce platform hosted in a cloud environment can be beneficial and offer crucial savings. The cloud offers the flexibility of pay-as-you-go, and with the benefits reaped, it can be reinvested back to grow your business.
- Convenience: By using cloud models, IT administrators can increase the number of virtual machines and customize the e-commerce store. This integration via the cloud reduces the dependency on on-prem IT staff and setting up physical hardware, allowing businesses to focus on more important things, on what products to add to enhance growth.
- Disaster Recovery: Cloud computing also offers a quick recovery in case of disaster since all the required data is stored in the cloud eliminating the need to have secondary data centers for backup purposes.
- Reduced Labor & Overhead Costs: With retail stores opting for e-commerce, aka online presence, they can reduce the number of physical outlets and create a central workplace through which goods can be shipped. This will directly result in reducing labor costs and other maintenance costs.
Cloud Technology to Boost E-Commerce Industry
Cloud computing can be your business’s best decision when choosing the right cloud service provider. The right service provider can help significantly reduce costs by as much as 30%. Most ecommerce platforms opt for AWS Cloud migration since it can help move enormous workloads in a staged manner and offers expertise and experience to ensure the migration is successful.
Cloud computing offers multiple benefits that retailers and e-commerce businesses can use by migrating to the cloud. Cloud computing can empower and enhance both the e-commerce and retail sector. It is no longer just a business tool but a requirement for e-commerce sites and the retail sector to stay afloat and thrive.
