Developing E-Commerce with Amazon Web Services

What Can Be Improved?

As mundane as it might seem now, digital storefronts are still relatively new in their use.  Amazon’s e-commerce services have seen a long history of development and have only reached their current stature through continuous innovation and changes.  To start, being able to scale to meet increased customer loads has always been a critical factor as high traffic will slow down the experience for everyone else and low traffic can result in burning through funds.  There are also certain customer impulses that can be encouraged to compel purchases and maintain interaction with customers to develop continued sales.  Finally, improving logistics reinforces any promises made to customers.

What Can Be Improved?

As mundane as it might seem now, digital storefronts are still relatively new in their use.  Amazon’s e-commerce services have seen a long history of development and have only reached their current stature through continuous innovation and changes.  To start, being able to scale to meet increased customer loads has always been a critical factor as high traffic will slow down the experience for everyone else and low traffic can result in burning through funds.  There are also certain customer impulses that can be encouraged to compel purchases and maintain interaction with customers to develop continued sales.  Finally, improving logistics reinforces any promises made to customers.

How it Works

The goal is to make the online shopping experience as fast and easy as possible for both the application and the user as cost-efficiently as possible.  Everything about how e-commerce services currently operate must be modernized from how data is implemented to how it’s stored.

• • Cloud-Native Infrastructure: The main issue is scalability.  There will be moments like Black Friday when there is a sudden surge of customers which will burn through application resources more than other points during the year.  At the same time, e-commerce applications can’t provision resources strictly on peak use rates because it’s not reflective of the rest of the year.  The cloud provides all the necessary rapid scalability and reliability to handle this without needing constant oversight.

• • Serverless Computations: Though it’s not universally applicable, serverless computing is another way to cut down on spending on servers.  The server will only be billed when active, and such functions will only run when invoked.

• • Microservices:  These are small snippets of a function that can be invoked from across a network with all the same capabilities of a full-fledged business function.  For a storefront operating from the cloud, this lets the storefront still carry out all the necessary functions for payments, carts, tax calculations, and more.

• • Data Storage: Compared to physical storage, cloud storage has near-limitless capacity and much better performance when appropriate.

How it Works

The goal is to make the online shopping experience as fast and easy as possible for both the application and the user as cost-efficiently as possible.  Everything about how e-commerce services currently operate must be modernized from how data is implemented to how it’s stored.

• • Cloud-Native Infrastructure: The main issue is scalability.  There will be moments like Black Friday when there is a sudden surge of customers which will burn through application resources more than other points during the year.  At the same time, e-commerce applications can’t provision resources strictly on peak use rates because it’s not reflective of the rest of the year.  The cloud provides all the necessary rapid scalability and reliability to handle this without needing constant oversight.

• • Serverless Computations: Though it’s not universally applicable, serverless computing is another way to cut down on spending on servers.  The server will only be billed when active, and such functions will only run when invoked.

• • Microservices:  These are small snippets of a function that can be invoked from across a network with all the same capabilities of a full-fledged business function.  For a storefront operating from the cloud, this lets the storefront still carry out all the necessary functions for payments, carts, tax calculations, and more.

• • Data Storage: Compared to physical storage, cloud storage has near-limitless capacity and much better performance when appropriate.

Solution Types

Data Migration

Even with some functionality in the cloud, businesses will need some connection to their local infrastructure whether it be for performance necessities or because the existing e-commerce solution is too complex to completely migrate to the cloud.  Most customers usually go with a hybrid solution of utilizing cloud services while retaining on-premises functionality because of the need for low latency and security compliance.  In either case, data will need to be moved back and forth extensively.  Whether it’s a complete transition over or just lightly tapping into cloud benefits, AWS does offer a variety of services for moving different data set types including blocks, databases, and machine images.  With how AWS works, e-commerce can save on storage costs and reduce the need for constant oversight.

Personalization

Customers want to see more of what they specifically need or close enough to it so that making that additional purchase feels more like a proper augmentation of what they originally bought.  Since any data in the cloud is more properly organized, it can be used to further secure brand loyalty by contributing towards fine-tuning recommendations on the e-commerce website.  While this is all industry standard by now, results and changes can now be accomplished in the span of days compared to months.  Like any other virtual machine, users will get to select what algorithm model they will want to use based on the data they are using.  Metrics can then be tailored further to specific business needs before being enacted on potential customers.  It boosts relevance, sales, and throughput all at the same time.

Edge Networking

With the help of the vast AWS network, it is possible to allocate needed data to local databases where an application is being used.  Even in a decentralized state, edge networking still provides the full benefit and control of AWS’ security suite with AWS Shield Standard protecting traffic from typical DDoS and malware attacks.  The application itself will be protected by AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules that are pre-configured but can be modified to meet the users’ needs.  With closer proximity to the end users, latency is made much lower, further accelerating the application’s functionality and the user experience.  Through over four hundred points of presence, the AWS network is interconnected with dedicated but redundant fibers.  Setting up AWS integration is also easy and simple, being able to finish in only a handful of clicks.  If the process is too complex, then there is an extensive community that can provide oversight.

Starting with E-Commerce

For existing e-commerce enterprises, making the jump to the cloud with existing infrastructure might seem imposing due to the slew of technical challenges.  However, newcomers to the e-commerce industry should consider taking full advantage of the cloud as it means avoiding having to accommodate application design to work in the cloud later.  With the added benefits for both the customers and the retailers, there’s no long-term reason not to eventually make the shift towards having some cloud-based operations.

Starting with E-Commerce

For existing e-commerce enterprises, making the jump to the cloud with existing infrastructure might seem imposing due to the slew of technical challenges.  However, newcomers to the e-commerce industry should consider taking full advantage of the cloud as it means avoiding having to accommodate application design to work in the cloud later.  With the added benefits for both the customers and the retailers, there’s no long-term reason not to eventually make the shift towards having some cloud-based operations.

Solution Types

Data Migration

Even with some functionality in the cloud, businesses will need some connection to their local infrastructure whether it be for performance necessities or because the existing e-commerce solution is too complex to completely migrate to the cloud.  Most customers usually go with a hybrid solution of utilizing cloud services while retaining on-premises functionality because of the need for low latency and security compliance.  In either case, data will need to be moved back and forth extensively.  Whether it’s a complete transition over or just lightly tapping into cloud benefits, AWS does offer a variety of services for moving different data set types including blocks, databases, and machine images.  With how AWS works, e-commerce can save on storage costs and reduce the need for constant oversight.

Personalization

Customers want to see more of what they specifically need or close enough to it so that making that additional purchase feels more like a proper augmentation of what they originally bought.  Since any data in the cloud is more properly organized, it can be used to further secure brand loyalty by contributing towards fine-tuning recommendations on the e-commerce website.  While this is all industry standard by now, results and changes can now be accomplished in the span of days compared to months.  Like any other virtual machine, users will get to select what algorithm model they will want to use based on the data they are using.  Metrics can then be tailored further to specific business needs before being enacted on potential customers.  It boosts relevance, sales, and throughput all at the same time.

Edge Networking

With the help of the vast AWS network, it is possible to allocate needed data to local databases where an application is being used.  Even in a decentralized state, edge networking still provides the full benefit and control of AWS’ security suite with AWS Shield Standard protecting traffic from typical DDoS and malware attacks.  The application itself will be protected by AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules that are pre-configured but can be modified to meet the users’ needs.  With closer proximity to the end users, latency is made much lower, further accelerating the application’s functionality and the user experience.  Through over four hundred points of presence, the AWS network is interconnected with dedicated but redundant fibers.  Setting up AWS integration is also easy and simple, being able to finish in only a handful of clicks.  If the process is too complex, then there is an extensive community that can provide oversight.