Quick Guide To Ecommerce Website Development

Thinking about building your very own ecommerce store, but not sure where to begin? Well, there’s no need to worry, we’ve got you covered. This quick guide to ecommerce website development is going to help you create your ecommerce store quickly and easily. 

Before we jump into the details, let's have a look at some important stats regarding ecommerce to have a better idea about where the trend is really heading. 

Important Ecommerce Stats

• According to Oberlo, ecommerce sales are expected to account for 18.1% of retail sales around the globe this year. 
• As per the finding by Oberlo, the number of global digital buyers is expected to hit  2.14 billion in 2021. 
• According to 99Firms’ Ecommerce Statistics for 2020, ecommerce is going to account for 95% of all purchases by 2040. 
• The Global Consumer Survey Report 2019 showed that users are more likely to purchase a product online using their smartphone rather than desktop devices. 

Ecommerce website development-The quick and easy way 

Read down below to find out more.

Perform Market Research and find your Niche

Before you build your online ecommerce store, you need to decide on a physical product that you will be selling. You certainly don’t want to put all the effort into building an ecommerce store only to find out later that people are not interested in buying what you are selling. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? 

Well, there’s no need to worry. You can avoid this from happening by doing market research and finding your niche. To make sure that your online business is profitable, you might want to choose a niche that is profitable.  

Ideally, it would be the one that has a growing number of potential numbers, with a limited number of competitors in the market.

Look for Trending Products 

Ecommerce trends are constantly changing. It’s not necessary that the products trending today will be trending tomorrow as well.

Therefore, it is essential that you look for a product that won’t become outdated anytime soon. It’s always smart to make use of different online business tools and tactics to get an accurate picture of your market.  

There are tons of different tools that can be used to identify trending products and services, some of them are: 

• Google Trends: This tool provides users with insights regarding the past and future trends of certain product keywords. Through this tool, users can a better idea about whether the market trend for a product is growing or falling. 
• TrendHunter: This website can be useful to find the products that are trending across the world. Also, users can specify their search with the help of an available filter that lets you filter results based on different industries. 

Choose the right business model

Read down below to find out the difference between business models for ecommerce stores.

• B2C Ecommerce Stores

B2C ecommerce or business-to-consumer refers to online ecommerce sales transactions between a business and an individual customer.

According to Statista, in the next few years, we can expect to see major growth in B2C e-commerce in the retail industry. As compared to 2019, global revenues are expected to increase by 85%.  

B2C stores are suitable for online retailers that are targeting individual end consumers.  

• B2B Ecommerce Stores

B2B ecommerce or business-to-business e-commerce is the sale of goods and services between two businesses.

According to a survey conducted in 2018, 48% of businesses are reported to make 50-74% of purchases online. Also, as indicated by Forrester Research Inc., the B2B ecommerce market is expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2023.

• C2C Ecommerce Stores

C2C ecommerce or consumer-to-consumer ecommerce refers to online ecommerce sales transactions between two or more consumers. Consumers are provided with an online environment, where they can interact and sell/purchase goods and services from other consumers.  

According to Statista, more than 100 million visits were recorded to the leading C2C and buy/sell marketplaces in 2020. 

This shows that C2C ecommerce is becoming increasingly popular among sellers who want to increase their revenue by connecting with customers they wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise through traditional marketing methods.  

Choose your Ecommerce Platform

Once you are done choosing the niche you are going to be targeting, and the product you are going to be selling. The next step is to choose the ecommerce website development platform that you will utilize for your online ecommerce store.  

When it comes to picking an ecommerce platform, there are many options to choose from. Let’s have a look at the top 3 most powerful ecommerce web solutions. 

• Shopify  

Shopify is one of the most popular platforms for ecommerce stores. The fact that Shopify ecommerce stores are so easy to create and customize is what makes it one of the best ecommerce platforms for online retailers.

Also, it features several different e-commerce website templates and themes that can be customized according to the requirements of your brand. It is a fully hosted platform that offers a number of add-ons and SEO additions.  

If you are not familiar with how Shopify works, then you might want to hire a Shopify development company to get your website developed.

• WooCommerce  

Lastly, WooCommerce is another open-source, fully customizable eCommerce platform best suited to small to medium-sized businesses.

WooCommerce allows users to build an online store using WordPress. One of the best things about WooCommerce is that it is free, and the underlying WordPress software is also free.

Since it is easy to understand and manage, you won’t need to hire a whole Woocomerce development company to create your website for you.

Recommended:  Why Should You Choose WooCommerce for eCommerce Development

• Magento  

Magento is another popular e-commerce platform, but unlike Shopify, it requires technical knowledge to build. Therefore, the majority of e-commerce businesses prefer to hire a Magento development company to build a fully functional ecommerce website.

Related Article: Pros and Cons of Choosing Magento for E-commerce Development

Start Designing Your Website

Once you are done choosing the platform, you can start focusing on the design of the website. If you want to go about the design quickly and without spending much money, then you might want to check out pre-designed templates that you can purchase at an affordable cost.  

However, this might not be the best option for you. It’s better that you avoid this option unless you are 100% satisfied with the template as it is.

Altering this template to make it look like the picture you have in mind is not only time-consuming but also takes a lot of effort, which pretty much kills the whole point of opting for a ready-made template. 

Therefore, if you have a particular design in mind then it's better to get a custom-made template. This will allow you to get the website design of your exact choice. 

Here are some things to consider while choosing a template:

• Features you want in your store

Make a list of the features you would want your website to have. The features on your website are what make your website operational and interesting. Therefore, it's important to include useful features that will make it easier for visitors to use your website.

• Homepage style

The home page of your website forms the very first impression when someone first visits your online ecommerce store. Choose a homepage style according to your business goal, that would fit the whole look of your website.

• Smooth navigation

One of the most important factors that affect the success of your website is whether or not it offers smooth navigation. The majority of visitors are most likely to leave your website if it is not easy to navigate. So, make sure that it's easy for your website visitors to find the product they are looking for.

Do Search Engine Optimization

Once you are done designing your website, the next thing to focus on is SEO optimization. Using the right SEO strategies can help your website rank higher in the search results.

Also, getting organic traffic depends on the relevance of your content in the eyes of web crawlers.

The two most important things to keep in mind while going for SEO optimization are:

• Keyword research 

Make sure you do proper keyword research to get a better idea about what customers are frequently searching for. If the content of your website is not targeting the right keywords, then chances are that your website won’t receive sufficient traffic. 

• On-site optimization

On-site optimization refers to making your site more usable, accessible, and eye-catching. Make use of headings, titles, filters, drop-down menus, search bars, and more to make your site easy to use.

Add Payment Options

When it comes to online stores, the more payment options available; the better. It has been shown through studies that customers are most likely to abandon their shopping carts if the website is not offering the payment options of their choice. 

In order to make sure that you don’t lose customers because of this one major mistake, try to make the checkout process simple and user-friendly. Also, it is better to include as many payment options as you can such as cash on delivery, debit card, credit card, etc. 

Pay proper Attention to Online Marketing

Once you have designed and optimized your website, and it's up and running. The next step is to start marketing it. This will help attract potential to your website and build your brand reputation. 

 There are many ways to market your product or your website. You can opt for email marketing, online advertising, or social activity on social media platforms; whatever option suits your business the most. 

A lot of development companies that offer ecommerce website development services also offer the option of online marketing of your website.

Conclusion

That’s it for now. Overall, ecommerce website development is not a difficult task if you plan out the whole process of building and designing your website from the start.

Also, the right marketing strategies can help get the revenues flowing in no time. We hope this guide to ecommerce website development helped you.