As I mentioned in a post last month, I recently returned from the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos” meeting in Dalian, China. The event was very interesting and by gaining a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing my peers around the globe, I felt more informed about the international environment my business is operating in. And information leads to ideas.

Interactive workspace sessions, like the “Maintaining an Innovative Edge” session that I was a facilitator for, provided a fantastic opportunity to explore the new concepts proposed by industry leaders, as were the talks headed by market-makers, academics and experts from all over the world.

A popular discussion topic that was of particular fascination to me was that of the ‘cloud’.

Cloud computing, and cloud services, are not a new focus for technology developers, but their practical use for business has leaders across all sectors and locations walking around Dalian with their heads in the ‘clouds’. As I listened to experts talk about the capabilities and possibilities on a broad scale, like any ambitious business owner, I began to think about what the cloud could mean for my customers?

In essence, cloud services aim to enhance user’s capabilities and capacities by hosting management tools online. With markets in the west having grown up in an international climate using a diverse range of hardware and software, integrating external cloud portals can often throw up compatibility issues. In China, the market is still young.

Right now, we have a unique relationship with China’s SMEs. DHgate has been working with these companies from the beginning, helping many of them enter the ecommerce sphere for the first time, and we have remained the driving force in their technological development ever since.

Many of the Sellers we have listed on our site have been with DHgate for several years and have experienced sales growth and logistical expansion under our platform. Comfortable in our space, these Sellers look to DHgate to provide CRM tools, sales analysis tools, order status analysis tools, HR management tools, etc. And Sellers who are well organized and supported provide a more professional and efficient service to their customers – our Buyers.

In short, they look to DHgate to provide not just as a transactional base for their businesses, but a business environment from which to run their day-to-day operations.

How can we leverage the cloud to grow our business offering?

I believe DHgate is in the best possible position to provide cloud services to Sellers. Firstly, because these businesses already work at DHgate we can anticipate their needs more intelligently than an external application can. Additionally, because these companies are already taking advantage of the platform based business management tools available on DHgate, the integration process would be far less intrusive and disruptive. I believe that by creating a DHgate cloud we will be able to dramatically reduce running costs for our Sellers businesses enabling them to pass on those savings to our Buyers.

I have always prided myself on the fact that DHgate is technologically unique, and by utilizing cloud computing, we can push the boundaries even further.

Does your business make the most of cloud computing? Please share your ideas and experiences on how both users and business can have the biggest impact.