Many small and medium sized businesses have found that working
through an Application Service Provider or ASP (hosted and
managed shopping cart software), removes the hassles that are
standard in managing an online store or shopping cart.
Furthermore, it is now accepted that outsourcing this function
will not only benefit a businesses bottom line, but also enables
merchants to spend less time sorting out technology problems,
leaving them more time to concentrate on the important matters
of running and growing their business.
An ASP means all data and applications are hosted, controlled,
upgraded constantly and maintained at a facility other than the
customers site where data can be accessed securely via the
internet. By outsourcing Small to Medium Enterprise's (SME's)
e-commerce solution to an ASP, the need to own costly equipment
is removed and reliability is increased by having access to 24/7
technical expertise. To the person sitting behind the computer,
there is no obvious difference to what they would see on their
screen
There are numerous advantages available for SMEs by outsourcing
to an ASP:
* You no longer have to purchase and maintain your own servers,
hosting room, virus protection, back up's or security systems
(this is all taken care of by your ASP), this will remove
overheads normally associated with internal IT systems
* An ASP generally offers the option of subscription, as opposed
to purchasing for thousands of dollars for anything decent.
* Financial benefits from the conversion of high-tech capital
intensive expenses into predictable, fully tax-deductible,
monthly pricing plans. This levels out the peaks and troughs of
IT expenditure
* The responsibility of managing the infrastructure is removed
(the ASP assumes full responsibility of the IT system)
* Remote access, network security and high disaster recovery
solutions equal to that required by financial institutions are
just some of the other services offered
The major and most overlooked advantage of using as ASP is the
sheer expense they have gone to in setting up strong
infrastructure and recovery system. In the worst case scenario,
you will generally be back online the same day with all your
site content including orders and products still in your
shopping cart.
There are few downsides to this model. Outsourcing your online
store to a specialist and reputable provider is certainly
something worth investigating, from a cost, efficiency and
security perspective. If all aspects are taken into account, you
will almost certainly find that setting up a shopping cart using
a boxed or non ASP solution is far less cost effective and time
consuming for your business not to mention frustrating!
So where does this leave us? In my opinion, a hosted ecommerce
solution is a better business model if you plan to develop and
market your business for success. The software you choose is
vitally important so make sure you research both free shopping
cart providers and paid ones as the
free softwares are really coming
into play since advertising can account for strong revenue these
days if there enough people interested in a product.
Happy hunting.
About the author:
22 years IT professional, 5 years SEO expert
Free shopping cart software
