Ecommerce Website Development Process

Ecommerce websites have become very popular over the past few decades. With an ecommerce website, you can globally develop your brand's presence. Studies have revealed that businesses with an ecommerce website make greater revenue than those with localized stores.

A quality user experience in the ecommerce website development process can increase sales. If you develop a website with a proper SEO strategy and relevant URL linking, there are chances that your ecommerce website will stand out from other competitors.

Ecommerce website development is the tool to increase the traffic, generate leads and to automatically boost your business. There are several steps involved in an ecommerce website development process before we get into them, we will break the ice for what an ecommerce website development is?

What is Ecommerce Website Development?

Ecommerce website development is the process of designing and building a responsive, functional, and secure website where consumers can purchase the products listed online by providers. Ecommerce websites are platforms that help people connect digitally to buy and sell goods, creating a secure and trustworthy pathway at both ends.

Steps Involved in the Ecommerce Website Development Process

1. Know Your Business Model

Before getting started with designing the website and listing the products, you should know your business model. Building your website after knowing your business model will change the layout and appearance of your ecommerce website. There are several types of business models that are being practiced, but the two most widely used for ecommerce website development are B2B and B2C.

2. B2C

These types of business model work directly from businesses to customers. They deliver their products directly to the customers without the interaction of any 3^rd party. Examples of B2C ecommerce website developments are Amazon, cheetah, and Zappos. 

3. B2B

These types of businesses work to supply products for other businesses. They produce products in bulk for other companies, service providers, and wholesalers. They typically have a smaller margin as their second business works with a third party to further use their products. Alibaba and ROOM are the two biggest examples of business-to-business ecommerce.

4. Figure out what product to sell

The most crucial step to excel and rank in the ecommerce website development process is the selection of what to sell. We always recommend targeting a micro niche. Never start with a general niche or general products that every other store is selling.

Whether you are selling electronic gears, clothing, furniture, or kitchenware, it’s always good to stick with your niche to launch a successful ecommerce business. Choose the product that adds value to the customers and plays some role in solving their problem. Knowing your audience and bringing products accordingly can also boost your sales.

5. Spend time on research and create a business map

Once you have a clear picture of what to sell and what model to follow, it's time to research your competitors and then create your own business map. You will plan your whole website development and business journey, enlist your goals, and make a strategy on how to achieve them. Having a predefined plan helps companies focus more on the roadmap that takes their business in the right direction.

Increasing the number of sales and empowering brand recognition by providing quality products to consumers is the goal of most businesses. Business goals and strategies will determine the structure and layout of your website, so planning them at an early stage is a great choice.

6. Develop and code the ecommerce website

JavaScript, because of its versatility and capability to support multiple browsers, is used for coding the back-end development of an ecommerce website. You can choose between open-source and SaaS platforms when handing over the development of your ecommerce website to an ecommerce developer. There are various ecommerce website builders, all packed with different utilities and features. Some of the popular ecommerce website builders are Zyro, Volsion, and Weebly.

7. Purchase the domain and hosting

Go forward and choose a unique, brand-representing, distinguishable domain name and URL. Your domain name shouldn’t be too short nor too long; it should be easy to remember. Never choose a name like that of your competitors; come up with a new, original, succinct domain name idea for your ecommerce business.

Once you have purchased a domain name and URL for your ecommerce website, the next step is to buy a hosting plan. Go for a plan with multiple domains and unmetered bandwidth. Make sure the hosting comes with a free dedicated IP and has SSL certificates. Shared hosting is a good option for start-ups, but as your site gets noticed and the traffic on it increases, shared hosting can slow down your website's speed. We recommend purchasing dedicated hosting, which gives the users their own dedicated personal server.

8. Creating the layout and optimizing the design

After purchasing the domain name and hosting plan, it's time to start designing your website. Add custom homepages, update the privacy details, figure out the FAQs section, and create new sitemaps. Once you have created all the layouts and custom pages, in order to hold the visitors and increase the bounce rate, you have to optimize the designs.

Creating a look and feel that holds the customers' attention and provokes them to interact—by adding user friendly colors and themes, detailed images, and videos all contribute to making the navigation easier. First impressions are lasting impressions, so work on making them more pleasing. Site optimization is all done in front end development.

9. Listing the products and CMS

Categorization of products with respect to niche and use can save a lot of time at the customer's end, making the customer happier and allowing him to navigate easily between different sections. A detailed product description with highlighted features and real time images increases the probability of a call to action at the user's end.

Develop a content management strategy from time to time based on the market's needs. It is always better to add a product list and add in demand market products to your ecommerce website. Understand what the customers need and determine the best route to get them to the product.

10. Integrate Payment and Shipping

Integrating a safe payment gateway and adding all the common payment methods available works greatly with a globally setup brand and an ecommerce website. Payment methods should be secure and safe and also allow mobile wallet integrations and bank transfers. People should be able to see the prices according to their native currency. Some of the common payment methods your ecommerce website should support include:

• PayPal
• Stripe
• Skrill
• E-Wallets
• Visa Cards and Bank Transfer
• COD (Cash on Delivery)

11. Launch your ecommerce website

If you are done with all the above steps of the ecommerce website development process, then it’s time to launch the site. But before you launch your website, go through some basic tests and checks. In major organizations, the quality assurance team of the IT center tests all the sitemaps, pages, gateways, and payment methods of the website. A green signal from them will allow us to launch the website and make it live and available to the general public.

After launching the website, to attract and drive potential customers, you would need proper marketing and advertising. There are also some other key practices that will help keep the ecommerce website running and working, which are discussed below.

Key Practices for Ecommerce Website Development

Site Responsiveness:

Better is the ecommerce site that is both mobile and desktop friendly. Develop your site in such languages and with such plugins that it is responsive across all browsers on both Android and iOS. The responsiveness of a site is also affected by its hosting and domain service provider. Choose a quality service provider.

Search Engine Optimization:

Keeping the site updated with the latest SEO practices is very important to increasing the website's ranking. Ranking is then directly proportional to the number of potential visitors, and hence to a higher conversion rate. A site that follows SEO practices gains credibility with search engines and starts appearing in suggestion lists for keywords as well.

With proper URL insertions, quality content, do-follow link building, and the insertion of the right keywords, your site can perform better on all search engines.

Site Speed and User Interface:

Site speed affects the bounce rate. The faster the site reloads, the more visitors it holds. Then, at later stages, these visitors can become your product buyers. Always follow practices to increase your site's speed. First impressions are lasting impressions, so if your site appears to be shaggy, has bad color themes, a poor user interface, an improper font, and furled text, it will obviously affect sales. So, pay attention to improving the site's user interface and try to make it as friendly as you can.

Effective Marketing of Your Site:

Invest some money in building your site online presence. No matter how good your ecommerce website is but if you don’t educate and make people aware about the product and services you provide then it won’t bring good results. Hire influencers and give you products for promoting him. Spend money on paid advertisements on different social platforms. Effective and potential Influencer marketing, paid advertising is the key to a build the floor for a sustainable ecommerce business.

Final Words

During the past years, many businesses have established their online presence, and launching your own ecommerce website has become much easier. The ecommerce website development process involves the selection of a niche and a proper business road map. Depending on the business model you are using, your goals and strategies are very important in monitoring your business's performance. While choosing the domain, make sure to keep it simple and relevant to your business. A hosting plan should be purchased based on features like bandwidth size and website speed.

Ecommerce websites with secure payment integrations and multiple payment method support are prioritized for businesses targeting the global market.