It’s a highly competitive market out there for retailers and to keep up, you need to make sure you’re providing the best customer experience possible. This means taking steps to ensure your website is secure, super-fast, can grow with your business and accessible at all times. Getting the right infrastructure for your business is key – and cloud hosting for your eCommerce site is the way to do this.
Cloud hosting is increasingly becoming considered a staple. For retailers not adopting cloud technologies, they’re missing out on a variety of benefits that their competitors could well be reaping. According to a report by The Economist Intelligence Unit, 70% of experts expect the cloud to be a major factor in the retail industry by 2020. So, if you’re not already, now is the time to consider cloud hosting for your retail business.
It’s an exciting time for retailers with the inception of a variety of technologies helping to grow businesses, engage customers in ways like never before, boost brand positioning and support infrastructures – just to name a few. Cloud hosting is one of these technologies that are pushing retailers forward during this transformative time for the industry.
Consumer demands and behaviours are influencing how retailers approach their strategies and business decisions like never before. The rise of social media, online reviews and growing competition mean that retailers are having to sit up and take notice, implementing changes to match customer trends and buying habits. Cloud hosting for eCommerce is empowering retailers to embrace such changes and positively impact their businesses. Once the forte of large retail chains, recent developments in cloud technology has made the cloud more accessible to smaller independent businesses.
Let’s take a deeper look into why cloud hosting is the right choice for your eCommerce site by exploring the benefits.
Scale and grow with cloud hosting
Is there anything more annoying for consumers trying to reach a website during peak times like sales events or seasonal periods and not being able to do so? It’s not only a rubbish customer experience but it affects your sales and profits, not to mention consumer confidence in your brand. You don’t want to be associated with having a poor website – things like that make a lasting impression on consumers, and you don’t want to be known as that retailer.
Super-fast websites
With a quick Google search, you’ll find a deluge of resources on how cloud technology will speed up your website. However, it’s important to note that cloud hosting isn’t intrinsically linked to website speed. It does, however, give you the possibilities to use powerful technologies like Kubernetes that can help you manage higher volumes of traffic through clever orchestration on the back end.
With consumer expectations higher than ever, people don’t want to wait around for website pages to load – there are plenty more options out there for discerning shoppers. According to a report from Unbounce, 70% of consumers are less likely to buy from a retailer due to poor website speed. A large portion of 36% said they’re less likely to return to the website, and a further 11.9% stated they’d even be likely to tell a friend about the poor experience. These statistics highlight just how important it is to get the right supporting infrastructure to support your website.
Cloud hosting offers optimal security
Data has been bandied around for years now as being ‘the new oil’, the holy grail of this that and the other – and despite the hype, the importance of data is undeniable. All businesses now rely on reams of data, from supporting business processes, marketing and personalisation, to growth opportunities – the answers often lie in the data. In the future, what will distinguish your business from your competitors, is how innovative you are with your data.
But, what do you do when that data becomes compromised? It’s a nightmare for any business and retailers handling large amounts of sensitive customer data need to be taking the steps to secure it as best they can. Cloud hosting is an effective way to do this, requiring less human resources and monitoring. This also results in lower costs than running in house hosting operations.
Offer personalised experiences
People are wanting more personalised experiences when shopping and cloud hosting is allowing retailers to really embrace this shift in marketing and customer experience. With cloud hosting for your eCommerce site, it is easier to offer enhanced omnichannel experiences; marketing campaigns that link together across all channels.
For example, you could send out targeted ‘add-on’ purchase emails following an in-store visit. You can also use enhanced points and loyalty for members using their purchase data; extra points on their favourite items, or rewarding their buying habits. Your customers will love these personal touches, and cloud makes this easier, simplifying the connections between the required systems – allowing you to focus on running your business and innovate faster.
Seamless business processes with cloud hosting
There are an incredible amount of benefits for business processes with cloud hosting in eCommerce. You can log in from anywhere, on any device, at any time and update orders and stock, check your sales – managing your entire operation remotely. This is a far cry from the days of managing all of this through a legacy back-office system; if you are – it’s definitely time to consider moving away from this restrictive view of your retail operations.
Cloud hosting also allows customer data to automatically be uploaded to the cloud when buying. The customer data and transactional data are updated centrally in real-time – this allows for accounts and reporting teams access to these as and when they’re needed day-to-day.
The data on stock and sales are also uploaded to the cloud, this can automatically notify warehouses for replenishment stock to be sent to stores following purchases. By implementing a better internal system, the improvements will benefit employees and in turn, the business as a whole.
Final thoughts
As you can see, there are so many reasons why cloud hosting is crucial for your eCommerce site. By implementing cloud hosting with a trusted and reputable provider, you’re bound to see the benefits in terms of costs, profits, security, and efficient processes.
If you’d like to find out more about how cloud hosting will help you keep up with your competitors and benefit your business, get in touch with the Venditan team!
Our recent posts
Keep up to date with the latest news and insight from the team at Venditan
