The world of commerce has changed dramatically. Since 1994, when the first online purchase was made, e-commerce has grown steadily and even started to displace conventional offline retailers. The development of marketplaces and social networks has made it easier for new players to enter the market, as it is no longer necessary to create and support their own websites. Competition is high, but the prospects are impressive. Sellers are constantly competing with each other. Therefore, in this article, we will look at the functions of the VPN that can bring your e-business a competitive advantage. Before diving into reading consider a free VPN download, so you can try out the main features as you read.
The Rise of E-Commerce
E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods or services on the Internet. According to The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce, the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2023 totaled $271.7 billion. Total retail sales for the third quarter of 2023 were estimated at $1,825.3 billion. This means that 15% of retail sales in the USA are made online.
Speaking about global sales, it is forecasted that by 2025 total spending on e-commerce purchases will exceed $7 trillion. It’s clear that the e-commerce market will continue to grow, especially after the impetus of the pandemic. Even opponents of online shopping have been forced to try it, and in many cases, it has remained in their lives to some extent.
Rapid growth is driving more and more sellers to go online and causing intense competition. To win in this competition, you need to stay ahead of the curve and implement new technologies in your business quickly.
How a VPN Can Benefit Your E-Commerce Business
The main advantages of a VPN for your business stem from its core functions.
- Bypassing geoblocking.
Geoblocking restricts access to online content based on the user’s geographical location. Access to a website can be blocked based on geographic location only if your IP (internet protocol) address is known. IP holds information about your location.
This can be a problem when you want to establish purchases or sales in other regions. For example, you decide to find a supplier of goods in Asia to reduce purchasing costs and win price competition. You search for relevant companies on the Internet and local marketplaces, but some of them are closed to you, and you don’t have access to the full information. This does not mean that you should give up on the idea. In such a situation, the VPN will be helpful.
When you connect to a VPN, you have a certain number of servers located in different countries available for connection. The variety of servers usually depends on whether you are using free or paid access. When you select a server and connect, your IP address is automatically hidden and replaced with the address of the selected server. This way, your current location cannot be determined, and you are no longer affected by geographical restrictions. Choose a server located in the country whose websites you want to browse, or you can experiment with other countries, as restrictions are usually not set for everyone.
Therefore, the VPN helps to run a business globally, without restrictions.
- Information security.
How often have you accepted payments or communicated with potential customers on the go? If you have a small store and no big team, probably the answer is often. Have you ever thought that you are putting yourself in danger in this way? By connecting to a public Wi-Fi network to respond to a customer or process a request, you put not only yourself at risk, but also the personal data of your customers.
The second benefit of using a VPN is increased security. Two of a VPN’s primary features—IP address hiding and data encryption—protect you when you use the Internet. VPN encrypts your data, which means that it encodes your information so that only the designated recipient can access it. This procedure guarantees the security of data while it is being transmitted over the Internet. It is extreamly important when it comes to online payments or transfers.
Additionally, it allows you to use public Wi-Fi safely.
So VPN secures your business information and saves you money on data loss recovery.
- Better internet connection.
Sometimes your files may load for a long time due to slow internet speeds. This may be done on purpose by your provider to encourage you to buy a more expensive package. To avoid wasting hours on uploading products or videos to your website, use a VPN. Try connecting to several different servers to find out where the best speed is. In general, among the many available servers, there will always be one with a higher speed than your home Internet connection.
There’s a long list of advantages of using a VPN in e-commerce, such as the fact that it will make your remote team’s access to work documents more secure. But the three mentioned above are enough to try using it in your daily business.
The question remains how to choose the best VPN to meet your needs? Basically, you should consider the encryption protocol used, the no-logs policy, how wide the server network is, compatibility with devices, price, and reputation. Start by using free versions to evaluate the quality of the service in practice.
E-commerce is still a young but rapidly growing industry. Now is the right time to start your business in this area, because there is already a high level of customer trust to online shopping, but there are still plenty of free niches and opportunities for growth. Implement new technologies in your daily work to increase business efficiency and stay competitive in this ever-changing world.
