When the internet entered our lives, the world as we knew changed. Slowly but surely, trips to the store started getting replaced by clicks on a mouse which eventually became taps on a smartphone. eCommerce or buying and selling online has grown leaps and bounds over time. So much so, that it is impossible to imagine a B2C business and even certain B2B businesses without having a converting eCommerce website. That being said, eCommerce is undoubtedly here to stay. The first thing you need to look into for establishing a strong eCommerce platform is the Hosting. In this post, we will talk about Cloud Hosting and how it can benefit eCommerce websites today.
eCommerce websites and Cloud Hosting
While every page/word written by your brand goes a long way in developing/ maintaining the brand image, your eCommerce website is the place where one error can put all marketing efforts to vain. Hence, it is important to ensure that your eCommerce site is optimized for your business.
Every website needs hosting and when it comes to an eCommerce website, the choice of hosting determines the performance, speed and security of the site. Imagine if a prospective buyer, who is finally cajoled by your marketing activities, decides to buy a product but finds the site to be too slow. What do you think he would do? Wait? Maybe. But more often than not he would close the browser and drop the idea of purchasing.
Cloud Server Hosting was born out of the idea of providing an uninterrupted, secure and scalable hosting server – a boon to eCommerce websites. Here are some of the features of Cloud Server Hosting that directly benefit eCommerce sites:
- Scalability: eCommerce is a highly volatile market segment. During festivals, people might go on a shopping spree and the website may receive a traffic spike. However, there are other times of the year when the sales hit rock bottom. How do you cater to these spikes and slumps? Cloud Hosting plans offer scalable architecture to upgrade resources like RAM and storage space to meet these changing needs of your business, instantaneously.
- Reliability: As a structure, Cloud Hosting involves data stored on multiple servers connected virtually. Even if one of the server goes offline, it doesn’t affect the uptime of the site since the other servers kick in. Also, any corruption of data is managed efficiently by restoring data from the back-ups. This will avoid loss of sales due to downtime of the site.
- Speed: For eCommerce websites, speed plays an important role in keeping buyers on the site. Most Cloud Hosting service providers deploy cutting edge technology and low density servers along with web application accelerators to ensure that the site load time is minimal. This keeps the visitor engaged while improving your SEO ranking as well. For instance, my current Cloud Hosting provider, ResellerClub integrates Varnish Cache in their Cloud Plans. Varnish Cache is a powerful web application accelerator that can speed up a website by up to 1000%.
- Security: For any buyer to feel comfortable transacting on an eCommerce platform, trusting the security measures taken by the site is essential. Cloud Hosting uses multiple levels of security to protect the data, applications and infrastructure. The idea of data distribution also makes it difficult for hackers to break into your site. This, when experienced by the buyer leads to an added feeling of trust and reliability.
- Cost: Many Cloud Hosting service providers offer a ‘pay as you use’ model for the services. Coupled with scalability, it saves costs of buying hardware and/ or software when business grows. For further reading on Cloud Hosting cost efficiency and comparing it to other Hosting types, check out this post.
These features, based on my experience are vital for any growing or established eCommerce player, making it a preferred choice of hosting for online businesses. If you feel I have missed out on any features of Cloud Hosting for eCommerce or have any counter arguments, please feel free to talk about them in the Comments section below.