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In this era of digital transformation, e-commerce has established itself as a significant business driver, with around 24 million active e-commerce websites worldwide. Due to the increase in internet usage, businesses are increasingly engaging clients through e-commerce.
A professional and user-friendly e-commerce platform from an experienced e-commerce website development company can help you to stand out of the crowd and gain that competitive advantage. Building the perfect website for your target audience might seem daunting, however, with the right consultation, the process can be made easy and efficient. we’ll give you some fundamental pointers on how to build your re-imagined e-commerce website for your company.
Step 1: Define Your e-commerce Website’s Purpose
Before you start building an e-commerce website, defining its purpose is essential. You need to know what you want to sell, your target audience, and your budget. You should clearly understand what you want to achieve with your e-commerce website.
Step 2: Choose the Right Technology Platform
Choosing the best technological platform from the outset is essential from a long-term viewpoint, considering both the investment and the performance with future user growth. Using a content management system (CMS) like Magento, Shopify, WordPress, or any comparable CMS is a popular choice. CMS platforms are user-friendly and include pre-built templates and plugins to assist you in rapidly and effectively setting up your e-commerce store. Here’s a brief explanation of each platform:
Magento: Magento is a powerful open-source e-commerce platform that is highly customizable and scalable. It is best suited for businesses with complex product catalogs and requiring a high degree of customization. Magento offers a range of features for managing products, orders, payments, shipping, and more. A choice of different plugins is also available, depending on the requirements.
WordPress: WordPress is an alternative content management system for building various websites, including e-commerce sites. It offers a wide range of customization options, including the ability to add e-commerce functionality through plugins like WooCommerce.
Shopify: Shopify is a dedicated e-commerce platform designed specifically for online stores. It offers a range of features for managing products, processing payments, handling shipping, and fulfilling other e-commerce features and functionalities.
However, it’s important to note that not only CMS is used for developing e-commerce websites, but also building custom e-commerce websites using frameworks like ReactJS & NodeJS, Laravel or Django is gaining popularity as well. Not limited to these technology stacks, e-commerce websites can also be developed in Microsoft technologies such as in .Net Framework and others.
Here’s a brief explanation of some of these platforms:
ReactJS: ReactJS is a popular JavaScript library used for building user interfaces. It allows for creating dynamic and interactive web pages to help build an e-commerce website.
NodeJS: NodeJS is a JavaScript runtime environment that allows for the execution of JavaScript code on the server side. It can be used to build backend systems for e-commerce websites.
Laravel: Laravel is a PHP web application framework commonly used to build e-commerce websites. It provides a range of features and tools for building scalable and secure applications.
Django: Django is a Python web framework used for building e-commerce websites. It is known for its “batteries included” approach, which provides a range of built-in features and tools for building web applications.
The choice of technology will depend on the specific needs, requirements, and budget of the e-commerce project.
Step 3: Select a Domain Name and Hosting
Your domain name is your online identity and represents your brand. Choose a domain name that is easy to remember, relevant to your business, and unique. Once you have selected a domain name, you must choose a hosting provider that can handle your website’s traffic and provide fast load times. Research different hosting providers to find one that fits your business needs.
When selecting a hosting provider, it is suggested to consider factors such as uptime, server speed, security, and customer support. Opt for a hosting provider to ensure your website is always up and running and can handle your website’s traffic without slowing it down.
Step 4: Design Your Website
The design of the website plays a crucial role in enhancing user experience and attracting and retaining customers on the website. It needs to be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and user-friendly. As more people browse e-commerce websites on their smartphones, be sure that your website design is optimized for mobile devices.
When developing your website, take into consideration elements like color scheme, typography, layout, and branding. The layout of your website ought to reflect your messaging and brand. Consider hiring a professional web designer to help create a visually appealing, user-friendly website.
Step 5: Create Your Product Catalog
Determining your product catalogue, which is the core of your e-commerce website, is equally as crucial as designing the website’s layout. Make sure your catalogue is properly sorted, navigable, and includes all pertinent product information. Include high-quality product images, descriptions, and pricing information.
When defining your product catalog, consider factors such as product categories, top-selling products, popular products, product images, product descriptions, and pricing. Your product catalog should be well-organized and easy to navigate, allowing customers to find the products they’re looking for quickly and easily.
A professional, easy-to-find search option gives that extra boost to your website when it comes to product searching.
Step 6: Set Up Payment and Shipping Options
Your e-commerce website’s payment and shipping choices have the power to succeed or fail. When it comes to online payment, security is a key consideration. Ensure that secured payment options are well integrated with payment gateways as required for your website.
To track the products sold on the website, shipping options can also be integrated with the necessary shipping gateways. It is advised to use shipping and payment gateways with a good reputation in the industry. At the time of selection, shipping costs and delivery schedules of the shipping platform must be considered. To give users peace of mind, these gateways need to be carefully considered.
Step 7: Test and Launch Your Website
End-to-end system testing before launching your e-commerce website is crucial. Check your website’s functionality, and payment calculations including discounts, etc., payment processing, and shipping options. Launch your website and spread the word about it after you are certain everything is operating as it should.
Conclusion: Developing an enriched, value-added e-commerce website can be simple and efficient if certain basic principles are followed as elucidated above. With offices in China and India and years of experience, axiusSoftware is a reputable company when it comes to eCommerce website development services. They have established a reputation for creating and launching multiple eCommerce platforms. If you need an eCommerce consultation on developing an effective development strategy for your website, reach out to axiusSoftware today!
