A quality ecommerce website development is essential for your online shop. Online shopping is steadily taking over the global retail market. Almost 20% of sales happen online and the number keeps increasing. If you want your business to join in this new wave, then, you need a well-developed ecommerce website.
A well-developed ecommerce website is not all about the beautiful appearance. If properly crafted, it will translate into real sales and profit for your ecommerce business by organizing the process of making order for customers and building brand value that can help your business prosper.
What Is Ecommerce Website Development?
This is the process of creating and building online platforms that enable businesses to sell products or items and services. It has to do with designing and developing user-friendly interfaces. Integrating payment gateways that are secure, managing product categories and incorporating features to enhance the general shopping experience for customers.
It includes:
- Website Design
- Product List
- Shopping Cart
- Integration Of Payment Gateways
- Security
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Mobile Responsiveness
- Customer Service
How To Develop An Ecommerce Website
To develop a successful ecommerce website involves a number of steps, from a clear company identity to crafting the site itself.
- Establish your brand: You will determine whether your online business will run a business to business OR business to customer operation.
- Purchase a domain name: First, you check if the your business domain name is available. If it is available, then you go ahead and buy; the good part is, buying a domain name is not difficult. Ensure your domain name (URL) is easy to remember and catches the eye.
- Get a hosting service: Once you have purchased your domain name, get a hosting platform to host your ecommerce website and get it up and running.
- Design your website: The appearance of your website matters, however, it is not the ultimate. Your website design should effectively communicate your business objectives beyond the beautiful logo and visually attractive colors.
- Work out how orders will be fulfilled: Ask yourself, which strategy will you choose for your ecommerce fulfillment? You will have to decide whether it is in-house fulfillment, dropshipping or third-party logistics?
- Build and launch your website: Get a web developer to help build your website and then launch it. However, before you launch, ensure to test your website thoroughly to be certain that everything works perfectly well. Test your site’s loading speed, features, mobile responsiveness and the checkout process before launch.
- Maintain your site: You will need to update your ecommerce website regularly so as to reflect any changes in your stock and product line as well as any promo you are running.
Characteristics of a successful ecommerce website
- Good User Interface (UI) or User Experience (UX)
- Strong online security
- Good mobile experience
- SEO
- Great product photos
- Frictionless checkout process
How to work with an ecommerce website developer
An ecommerce website developer will definitely make the process more effective. You can work with a freelancer or an agency.
Hints on how to work with an ecommerce website developer: Clear communication and planning ahead are key.
- Communicate your business scope
- Release as much detail about your business as possible
- Discuss your budget beforehand
- Give them detailed feedback throughout the process
- Discuss your options for updating and maintaining the website once it’s launched
