HOSTING
SMEs require more accessible, less complex hosting solutions
by Philip Delport: CEO at xneelo.
The ecommerce market in South Africa has grown rapidly in the past two years, largely due to pressurised retailers fast-forwarding online growth to counter restrictions. Post-Covid, and despite challenging economic times, especially in the tech industry, ecommerce consumer growth is expected to continue rather than decline. We are all familiar with the big players who continue to invest heavily in this space. One industry stalwart predicts that local online retail will grow by 25% this year.
Trends indicate that new startups increasingly require accessible hosting solutions to help them with their basic business needs. Larger ecommerce platforms and major cloud providers are often too complex and expensive for small businesses to leverage. This will drive the demand for a one-stop-shop website that allows you to advertise your products and process payments – providing an opportunity for small businesses to compete in the ultra-competitive ecommerce market. Mobile compatibility is key here as consumers expect the same experience on their phones as they do from websites.
The popularity of WordPress as an enabler for ecommerce websites is also growing rapidly, as is Managed Hosting, largely driven by the organisational need to maintain a website without relying on additional investment into IT infrastructure, services and personnel. The global managed services market is expected to exceed 300 billion dollars by 2027, with managed hosting being one of the most popular of these services. By comparison, the managed hosting market was worth 60 billion dollars in 2018, which shows the remarkable growth being seen in this area. For SMEs especially, this type of hosting provides a certain amount of peace of mind around maintenance, uptime, ease of use, and most importantly: security, which continues to be a major focus.
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