What Is E-commerce Website Development? A Step-by-step Guide
According to the data released by Forbes, 20.8% of retail purchases will expectedly occur on eCommerce Platforms in 2023. We can already see how drastically the likes of Amazon and Flipkart, and eBay have made their way into our day-to-day purchasing habits.
Judging all these facts, it is convenient for one to consider starting an eCommerce business. That is where the question ‘of how to do eCommerce website development comes to mind.’
If you want to start your own eCommerce business and need help with how to start, then this article will guide you. Here, you will find all the help you need to start developing your eCommerce website from scratch.
What Is An eCommerce Website?
An eCommerce website is an online platform that facilitates the buying and selling of goods and services through electronic transactions. It allows customers to browse and purchase products or services from anywhere, at any time, using a variety of payment methods.
eCommerce websites typically have a catalog of products, product pages with descriptions, images, and reviews, a shopping cart, and a checkout process.
They may also include features such as wishlists, product comparisons, and personalized recommendations. eCommerce websites can range from small, single-vendor sites to large-scale marketplaces with multiple sellers and extensive product catalogs. Overall, eCommerce websites have revolutionized the way people shop, making them more convenient and accessible than ever before.
What Is eCommerce Website Development?
E-commerce website development is the process of creating an online platform to facilitate the buying and selling of goods and services through electronic transactions. An e-commerce website allows customers to browse products or services, add items to a virtual shopping cart, and complete the checkout process using electronic payment methods.
Steps Involved in eCommerce website development
Whether you are starting a company or a small personal eCommerce, you need to ensure certain processes are done right. There are several processes that vary in scope. These steps involve creating the identity of your company, taking care of the marketing aspect, and also building the website itself. Here are some steps necessary for the success of an eCommerce website development.
Create Your Brand Identity
Creating a brand identity is crucial when starting an eCommerce business. The first process is identifying whether your business is a B2B or a B2C business. You need to determine your target audience and tailor your website’s design, content, tastes, and products to match your audience’s needs. The name of your business also contributes a great deal to your success, so it is also part of the process.
Purchase A Domain Name
You have to purchase a domain name for the company when starting a business. However, you should also be concerned about the availability of the domain name when choosing a name for your business. When the domain you want is available, you can choose to have a short-term contract and buy it for a year or two. Create easy-to-remember and short URLs to drive more traffic to your eCommerce platform.
Choose A Hosting Platform
Now, you have to choose a hosting platform for your website. While you can go for website hosts that require you to design and develop the website yourself, some hosting offers pre-built designs optimized for desktops and mobile viewing. You can choose the hosting that suits your needs the most.
Design Your Website
The logo and the website design need to be paid attention to during eCommerce website development. The eye catchiness of the logo and the color palette of the website plays a crucial part in driving traffic and a better conversion rate. If you are building an eCommerce website from scratch, pay some attention to designing a website that is easy to navigate.
The stores should be easy to navigate and have efficient search and filtering options. Paying less attention to such aspects can cause a decline in sales and brand reputation.
Build And Launch Your eCommerce Website
Now comes the main process of eCommerce website development, where you develop and launch your eCommerce website. If you want to save on web development costs by choosing platforms like SHopiyfy and use the prefab methods. Such platforms allow you to drag and drop the different blocks and image placeholders in the interface for site-building.
However, if you are not on a tight budget, you can use platforms like Shopify and get a developer to develop the site before migrating it over.
Determine The Process Of Order Fulfillment
You have to determine how the orders will be fulfilled as the next step for the success of your eCommerce platform. There are different eCommerce fulfillment strategies you can opt for. For instance –
- In-house fulfillment.
- Dropshipping
- Third-party logistics
Each of them works differently. As a drop shipper, you will order items directly from suppliers and send them to the customers. Third-party logistics fulfill orders through fully outsourced fulfillment processing. From there, you will get information about the capacity of your orders; it will also help you understand how to design your eCommerce site.
Maintaining Your Site
You need to keep your eCommerce website updated regularly to reflect the changes being made to your stocks and your product lines. The maintenance also deals with any promotion you are running on the platform.
Maintaining the website regularly will help you find out certain functionalities your customers don’t need. This way, you can reduce or incorporate different parts to your website and help make it better with the changing need of your customers and your business. It is also an interesting aspect since one can change eCommerce businesses, unlike the brick and mortar stores. All you need to do is to click on a button.
Bottom Line
When creating an eCommerce Platform, you can pay attention to certain aspects like UI/UX, good online security, and great mobile experience for better results. You should also make the website well-optimized for a better ranking on the SERP. However, when you need help with how to start the development process, the steps and guides given in this article should help you. But, if you have any further queries related to the same, you can ask questions in the comment section. We will get in touch with you in short.
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Shahnawaz Alam
Shahnawaz is a passionate and professional Content writer. He loves to read, write, draw and share his knowledge in different niches like Technology, Cryptocurrency, Travel,Social Media, Social Media Marketing, and Healthcare.
