Research: What Are SMMEs Looking For In A Hosting Solution?
The following research is brought to you by xneelo.
Heavy Chef is proud to partner with South Africa’s trusted web-hosting solution.
The e-commerce market in South Africa has grown rapidly since 2020, largely due to pressurised retailers fast-forwarding online growth to counter Covid-19 restrictions. Despite challenging post-pandemic economic times, especially in the tech industry, e-commerce consumer growth is expected to continue. We’re all familiar with the big players, who continue to invest heavily in this space. Industry stalwart (and long-time Heavy Chef friend) Arthur Goldstuck predicts that local online retail will grow by 25% this year.
The costs of existing in this crowded market can be high, especially when it comes to the tech requirements of running an e-commerce store. What do SMMEs need to know about web hosting in order to stay competitive?
Insight 1: Simplicity Is Key
Trends indicate that new start-ups increasingly require accessible hosting solutions to help them with their basic business needs. Larger e-commerce 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 e-commerce market.
Insight 2: Ignore Mobile At Your Peril
Mobile compatibility is key here as consumers expect the same experience on their phones as they do from websites.
Insight 3: SMMEs Prefer A Done-For-You Approach
The popularity of WordPress as an enabler for e-commerce websites is also growing rapidly, as is managed hosting. This is 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 $300bn by 2027, with managed hosting being one of the most popular of these services. By comparison, the managed hosting market was worth $60bn in 2018, which shows the remarkable growth being seen in this area. For SMMEs 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.
