Magento announced their cloud eCommerce offering for Magento 2 earlier this year. While SaaS eCommerce models have been around for a while, Magento customers are used to the flexibility and robust features of the enterprise platform. What are the considerations for Magento Cloud and is it right for your online commerce business?

Is Cloud the Right Fit? 

Businesses experiencing rapid growth may not even be able to predict their traffic flow next month – let alone next year. Viral products and hot seasonal items also produce a rollercoaster traffic flow. For mid-market and growing companies – cloud may be the answer. Cloud can give your company the chance to test drive an enterprise-level system – without the hassle.

A partner experienced in transitions to Magento 2 can lessen the burden on your team. Let’s talk. >>

Here are some crucial decision questions to evaluate whether cloud is right for your brand:

• Do I need an extended team to manage my site?
• Do I need a faster time-to-market than a traditional website launch?
• Do I need a lower initial investment?
• Do I have rapidly growing or inconsistent/seasonal sales volume?

If you answered yes to most of these queries, cloud may be the best option for your Magento site.

Hosting, Covered

Cloud hosting means that your site is always delivering peak performance – with protected and backed-up servers hosting your eCommerce operations, downtime because of traffic overload is no longer a fear. According to Internet Retailer, a lagging site can increase cart abandonment by up to 40% — killing conversion and customer experience. Ensuring consistent delivery of content and product load time­­ at a more-than-competitive speed can increase customer return rate. A loyal customer will deliver exponentially more lifetime value than one that just occasionally buys.

With an always-on, always-delivering site – analytics are tracked round-the-clock as well, giving you better insight into your growing business. Learn more about Magento business intelligence?

Business Moving Fast? So is Cloud. 

Cloud allows budding businesses the freedom to test drive new technologies with less of a risk to the business overall. New features like B2B optimization and intelligent marketing are easy to implement on a SaaS environment – there’s no need to worry about server space or site slowdowns on account of adding extensions or enabling features. Magento Enterprise Cloud Edition boasts staging and preview capabilities, as well as drag-and-drop merchandising – helping your creative minds become IT minds.

Hosting in the cloud also means access to a range of Magento IT professionals when you need them, or just want to ask a question (or ten). When choosing a partner for your cloud implementation project, ensuring that support and team augmentation for special projects and continuous maintenance is crucial to cloud success.