E-commerce is one of the world’s largest industries, with it generating trillions of dollars in revenue each year. So it’s not any surprise that a vast majority of business owners, retailers, entrepreneurs, and most commercial enterprises look to invest in an e-commerce infrastructure to future-proof their businesses. E-commerce sites or online shops are designed to help people discover, compare and purchase products they like, need, and want quickly from the smart device of their choice. Because of this intense need for online shops development of e-commerce websites throughout the world has soared in the last decade or two, spearheaded by e-commerce giants like Amazon, eBay & Alibaba.
Now, we are not saying that e-commerce websites are limited to large organizations only. It’s actually the opposite. E-commerce website development companies make sure that creating online shops becomes more accessible and affordable for everyone who wants to start a business. Entrepreneurs can literally go on Google and search for the best e-commerce website developers and find a list containing thousands of companies. Online shops are all about conveniences, and the best ones offer just that.
We here at the Freelancers Hub have assembled a team of top-tier e-commerce website developers who are known to deliver high-end websites that are geared towards sales. Freelancer’s Hub is a dynamic digital agency specializing in providing complete digital solutions for anyone who needs it. The Freelancers Hub e-commerce web development experience is catered around a few criteria set by the best e-commerce developers. Those are:
- Increasing reach by carefully selecting target markets and audience.
- Attracting more traffic and audience to the store by being open 24/7.
- Reduction in operational and marketing costs.
- Utilizing analytics to understand, track, analyze, and optimize the site to cater to website visitors’ interests.
As you can see, we believe in a comprehensive approach to e-commerce development. Our goal is to ensure that we deliver to you the perfect e-commerce platform for you to succeed. Before you succeed or start working with us or any other e-commerce website development company, we wanted you to know how to create the perfect site. So our e-commerce developers created this simple guide to making the best e-commerce website.
However, before we dive into the guide itself, let’s talk about the types of e-commerce businesses out there. Because once you understand the kind of e-commerce you are, you will be able to optimize your website further accordingly. So there are about three different types of e-commerce businesses out there. They are:
- B2C Stores: B2C stands for business to consumer, which means that this type of e-commerce website sells products and services directly to the final consumer.
- B2B Stores: B2B stands for business to business. Meaning this is an e-commerce store that specializes in selling its product and services to other companies.
- C2C Stores: C2C Stands from consumer to consumer. Meaning this e-commerce website is a platform where individuals and retailers can sell their products directly to the final consumer. The perfect example of this sort of website is eBay.
So now that you know the types of e-commerce websites out there, you are ready for the guide. In the following passages, we will discuss how you can develop a simple strategy to create the best e-commerce website. So without further ado, let’s begin!
E-Commerce Website Development Steps
The first thing you need to do when developing an e-commerce website is to understand and create a business model to operate under. Once you have that fleshed out, then you move to the development phase. There are six different steps that every e-commerce website developer must take to ensure they create the perfect website. They are:
- Choosing The Best E-Commerce Solutions.
- Creating A Design With UX/UI In Mind.
- Ensuring A Pleasant Shopping Experience.
- Quality Assurance & Site Launch.
- Comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy.
- Analyzing E-Commerce Performance.
So those are the steps you need to follow when developing an e-commerce website. These are vital steps followed by the best e-commerce site developers in the world. Now that you know the steps let’s talk a little about what happens and what each step ensures for the e-commerce entrepreneur.
Choosing The Best E-Commerce Solutions
Regardless of the type of e-commerce website you want to develop for your brand, one thing is for certain. You need to make sure you choose the right e-commerce solution or system if you’re going to succeed. The right e-commerce solution will turn your idea into a fully-functional online store with fully integrated features.
Now, you may be wondering as to what an e-commerce solution contains, right? The first thing that you need to make sure of when developing your e-commerce site is choosing the right CMS e-commerce platform. There are plenty to choose from. CMS solutions like WordPress, Shopify, Woocommerce, Magento, & Drupal are the most popular choices out there. Once you have that choose a suitable hosting plan for your e-commerce site. Then the next step is to select a suitable theme that’s perfect for your e-commerce.
Emphasize Home page appearance and mobile-friendliness level when choosing a theme. Remember that even if you have the best website, you will never be successful with a website that has a complicated payment method. Make sure that you integrate a convenient payment method for your potential clients. Now for the website’s operational aspect, you should look to incorporate custom features and extensions to ensure complete control of the e-commerce platform.
User-Friendly E-Commerce Design
The new-age consumers are harder to please. Before, businesses didn’t need to put that much effort into being user-friendly as it was a physical location. However, your e-commerce website is the only way to interact with online consumers. As an e-commerce website development company, we know very well how important a user-friendly e-commerce website design. Ensuring intuitive website navigation is the easiest way to engage and generate sales.
The first thing you need to do is to ensure your website is mobile responsive. Ensure your e-commerce platform is accessible from all devices, whether it is a mobile, tablet, or desktop. Ensure that the web design you choose is unique to your brand. Make sure it has your official log and utilizes specific color schemes that you selected. Understand that people are looking for a simplified experience, so remove clutter from the design to enable simple navigation without distractions.
Integrating a drop-down categorized navigations menu will simplify the entire process and make sure people find it easy to access product categories and subcategories. Another part of the e-commerce ethos is integrating high-quality images and 360° panoramic images & videos to ensure people understand and see your products. People don’t have direct access to the products so good quality images, and well-written product description is the only way they have to verify whether or not to buy products from you.
Seamless Shopping Experience
E-commerce is a highly saturated sector, with everyone trying to capture the attention of online users. So most e-commerce platforms offer fantastic products, and what sets them apart is the seamless shopping experience. Now how do you do that? As an experienced e-commerce website developer, the Freelancers Hub knows what you must ensure to create a seamless shopping experience.
The first thing we do when developing an e-commerce website is to ensure the loading speed for its pages is optimum. Make sure it’s never more than 4 seconds. Ensure the products are categorized perfectly. To do that, we ensure we optimize the use of main categories – subcategories – tags while also integrating advanced search and product filtering options.
Another thing that we optimize the website for is we make sure each product detail is displayed. From stock status, shipping cost & durations, professional product photos to customers’ reviews & testimonials, and other related products. For completed purchases, you need a thank you page where you redirect your customer after the purchase.
We also integrate an efficient customer support system that facilitates and enhances your own in-person customer service efforts. One thing that is often overlooked is the easy registering process and supporting guest checkouts. This is very important for e-commerce businesses as most people may not want to provide information or may just want a simple method to get what they want. Along with the convenient payment option, you need to ensure the visitors’ personal information & financial transactions are safe. So developing a website with SSL certificate encryption is imperative.
The online landscape is an all-inclusive space. When designing an e-commerce platform, you have to make sure your website supports multiple languages and ensures a wide range of browser compatibility. You need to build trust amongst your audience, so declaring a clear return and exchange policy for products with a FAQ page is another thing you need to ensure. The new-age customer is looking for a brand that interacts with them, and the best way to do that is through social media. Integrate your social icons within the design and encourage your visitors to connect with your brand through social media.
Quality Assurance & Site Launch
Once you have all the design elements and features together, the next part is to test out everything together to see if it works or not. Test out the navigation, checkout process, the security level of databases, and financial transactions. Ensure the tracking codes and discount coupons are all functioning as they should and determine the integration level of custom extensions, and features added.
Once you see everything is functioning perfectly, it’s time to launch your website. However, the work’s not done yet. In the following few passages, we will talk about how you can take your newly developed e-commerce website to the next level. So let’s get into it!
Comprehensive Digital Marketing Strategy
We here at the Freelancers Hub specialize in providing comprehensive digital solutions to e-commerce businesses. Our team understands that delivering a website isn’t the last step in creating a successful business. A new e-commerce business needs a comprehensive digital marketing strategy to get established in its niche. E-commerce SEO, social media strategy, other aspects of establishing a brand are all vital when starting out. Invest time in creating an e-commerce SEO strategy geared towards generating organic traffic.
Along with that, you need to create targeted search engine marketing and social media marketing. Integrate email newsletters and sequenced promotional campaigns for targeted users’ interests. Once you have a strategy in motion, send in sales discounts and coupons for loyal customers to ensure repeat sales.
Analyzing E-Commerce Performance
A successful e-commerce website is never fully developed, and there’s always room for improvements. You can do that by analyzing the data you can get from the tracking codes. Analyze all the accurate traffic reports and conduct thorough behavior analysis to know where you need to make adjustments and optimize the site. Understanding what you have to do will come from knowing what to look for, and you can do that if you know the right metrics. You need to know the monthly traffic volume & each source%; you also need to understand your website’s conversion rate. Check the sales volume for each category and each product.
Find out the average session duration and average time spent on each page. You know also need to check the average order value and return on advertising spend. Check out your site’s bounce rate and what the cart abandonment rate is for your e-commerce website. Knowing the numbers behind the metrics will help you understand where you have to make improvements. So make sure you analyze and decipher the data every month to know how to proceed in the coming months.
Work With The Best
So there you go that completes the Freelancers Hub simple guide to developing a successful e-commerce website. We understand that creating a successful e-commerce website is hard when you are on your own. That’s why we here at Freelancers Hub offer affordable e-commerce website development services and e-commerce digital marketing solutions to ensure the platform is perfectly optimized for success.
So if you require an overhaul, then contact us, and we will take care of the rest. And that’s all we have for you today. Let us know in the comments below about your next e-commerce idea, and hit us up on our socials to send in your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions on what we should cover next time. We will come back with something for you soon. Until then, see ya!
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