The internet is supposed to make shopping, communicating, and doing business easier, but for entrepreneurs, the transition from a brick and mortar store to eCommerce, whether you sell clothing or consulting services, can be a significant challenge.
Keeping merchandise in stock, dealing with employees, marketing, and customer service are challenges for any business. Adapting these operations to an online format involves a substantial learning curve, time, and resources.
Companies have to grow their online businesses to keep up with the booming eCommerce trend. COVID intensified this trend with lockdowns that closed physical stores and kept shoppers at home. Supply chain disruptions sent consumers searching the internet to find online sources for favorite items. Even as stores reopened and regulations eased up, many customers had already changed their shopping habits in favor of online stores.
In this environment, companies have had to develop their online businesses and expand the eCommerce offerings they had before COVID. During this process, the challenges present in running any business have taken new forms including dealing with payroll, communication with employees, marketing on social media, inventory, and keeping track of sales on an eCommerce platform or company website.
Tools for the eCommerce Trade
In addition to software, apps, and eCommerce platforms that help you run your online business smoothly, a VPN is an essential tool that can improve efficiency, security, and access to content. It provides the basis for viewing content on geo-restricted sites and prevents your IP from getting blocked when researching customer behavior and competitors’ websites. They are also inexpensive with most VPNs, such as Urban VPN, available at low-cost or free. To get a VPN for laptop or PC-Learn More.
What Is a VPN?
A VPN, also known as a virtual private network, creates a pathway to connect to websites without their detecting your IP address. It conceals your IP address and displays another one so your actual location will not be seen. This opens access to sites whose content is restricted by region.
A VPN isn’t just for streaming movies from any location but can make working online more secure and effective. By concealing your IP address and traffic, a VPN offers an additional layer of security in addition to encoding protection you may already have on your device. This is particularly important when employees working remotely send sensitive information from public networks or others networks that can’t be verified.
A VPN can also make market research easily by ensuring it will be anonymous and preventing websites from limiting your ability to gather data by blocking you. There are many reasons why a VPN is essential for an online business.
1. Additional Security
You may feel your device is secure, but hackers can often get through the barriers on a computer and still retrieve data or infect a device with malware. One way to be safe is to be virtually invisible online. As a business owner, your company handles a lot of sensitive data, such as customer credit card information, login data, and valuable intellectual property.
If your employees are also working at home, it can be difficult to coordinate all of the security measures employees are using such as types of encryption software. Ensuring all of your employees are equipped with a VPN can ensure that sensitive data is secure and is not going to be intercepted by a third party.
2. Faster Internet Connection
There are some cases in which you may have to trade security for internet speed. Usually adding encryption through a VPN and a proxy server can slow down your internet. However, there are many cases in which a VPN will make your internet work faster
Internet Service Providers or ISPs often practice bandwidth throttling, which means limiting certain types of traffic to make room on the fast lane for special customers. Admittedly, it is a racket, and those who don’t pay certain fees may find that downloading, video streaming, and file transfers are encumbered by incredibly slow speeds.
Since VPNs shield your IP address, you can avoid being targeted by ISPs and your bandwidth will not be limited, so you may notice that internet pace picking up.
3. Manage Employees Working Remotely
A VPN can ensure that your employees are handling sensitive data securely, can access crucial geo-restricted content, and retrieve important business documents. A VPN conceals individual IP addresses and keeps your company data safe from hackers and malware.
You can also put certain employees on an IP whitelist. This is like a VIP list that will allow relevant employees to access company documents automatically. Simply assigning a Whitelist IP is easier and faster than sending documents and approvals back and forth.
If you have an international team, geo-restricted content can pose a significant obstacle to research and communication. With a VPN, your employees will be able to use any content from websites around the world.
4. Improved Customer Communication
Connecting with your customers is an important aspect of eCommerce. The average online customer has high expectations for reaction times and website functioning. A VPN can protect you from attacks that can slow down your site. This is a significant aid for customer retention and satisfaction.
Just as VPNs shield against malware attacks and hacking it can also prevent a DDoS attack, which is a major cause of website slowness. Customers often abandon a website if it isn’t working correctly, so VPN protection can lead directly to customer retention and increased sales.
5. Location Change
Companies want to provide a united front to partners and customers. Creating the impression that everyone involved, from management to customer service has a single location can be an advantage. Despite the realities of eCommerce, telecommuting, and working from home, if everyone sets their VPN to one specific location, there can be a sense that all employees are working from a central office or headquarters.
6. A VPN Is Cheap or Even Free
Some of the leading names in the VPN industry charge only a few dollars a month for their services. Other VPN companies offer services and features comparable to paid VPNs but at no cost. VPNs improve access, internet speed, security, and efficiency for your employees are worth the investment if you choose a paid VPN or will cost your company nothing with a free VPN.
A VPN Is a Great Fit for Your Online Business
Expanding your online business requires planning, work, and the right tools. A VPN can help you manage your remotely located employees, increase security for sensitive customer information, and improve efficiency. At low or no cost, a VPN can revolutionize your business. For a A VPN for laptop or PC learn more.
