21 April 2013

More Than a Storage, You Can Turn Your Cloud Storage Into ECommerce Platform

By now, most of us have one or more preferred cloud storage - Dropbox, Box.Net, Google Drive, SkyDrive. We know how it is used: primarily for storing our files into the cloud so we can access them from anywhere or from any device. Another most common use is as a sort of a backup storage in case of a computer crash.

But what you may not know is that your cloud storage can be used into any e-commerce or m-commerce (mobile commerce) platform. There are quite a number of tools or apps that you can use to maximize your use of your cloud storage, whatever it may be.

I will cite just a few and limit to what I have tried, some are free and some requires a monthly fee. Even if you are charged for a fee, I can assure you that you will get your money's worth for its very functionality:

1. Document signing function.
There are a number of apps offered to let you have a e-signature for documents - Adobe EchoSign, DocuSign and my favorite HelloSign. The HelloSign is more to my taste as it is very simple to use, no limit and most of all it can be integrated with your Gmail account, what more can you ask? So if there's a document or a contract to be signed, store it to any of your storage cloud and let HelloSign do the rest.

2. Sales Ordering Function
Handshake is an app that can be installed in your Box storage so you can use your Box folder as repository of all your sales record done via Handshake. Handshake serves as your product presentation platform, Sales Ordering platform where you can fill up sales orders and your office can instantly pick up that sales order and prepare the delivery to your customer in a jiffy. Isn't that efficiency?

3. Web site function
Need a web site? Then turn a folder in your Dropbox into a web site. Site44 is an app that can be integrated with your Dropbox account. The drawback is you have to have knowledge of HTML programming code so you can have a real fantastic web site of your own. Actually HTML programming is not that hard to learn. There is a ton of templates you can use for website you have created.

4. Other useful tools you can use. The Practical E-Commerce has other apps which can turn your cloud storage into powerful platforms for e or m commerce. Visit their web site here.

As you can see, there are a lot of things you can do with your cloud storage. Maximize them and you can profit from them.


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