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Use the cloud, Luke: easier shipping is in the stars

22 Jun 2009

Using Software as a Service (SaaS) or cloud computing to outsource otherwise costly infrastructure - such as human resources, call centres and automated payroll - has allowed many savvy small businesses to improve efficiencies, grow profits and maintain their business focus by buying services on demand. The benefits of the on-demand model, such as low- or no-cost resources on demand, and paying only for services used are now being applied to previously cloudless business practices.

Unlike the Amazons and Targets of the world, smaller e-commerce businesses understandably have limited resources to channel into infrastructure. The past decade of e-commerce has been a story of small companies using online and Internet-delivered services to "act like the big boys". To date, the leveling of the playing field made possible by the Internet has not carried over to physical infrastructure investments like warehousing or shipping. However, all that is changing with Internet-delivered warehousing and order fulfillment.

Shipping and inventory storage are an integral part of business, but e-commerce companies usually find the costs involved in building an infrastructure stifling. Companies spend time, money and precious resources on warehousing and fulfillment - all of which would be better spent on inventory investment and business growth.

Read the full article here.