eCommerce Website Development in Just 8 Simple Steps

eCommerce websites are great online assets for retailers as well as buyers who like to shop at their convenience. eCommerce website development is crucial in today’s digitalization, and to proceed with that, you just cannot make way with any ordinary website builder & get done. An eCommerce website is much more complex and demanding than any average blog, to build a unified & selling eCommerce store, it takes:

• Robust information architecture
• Design that stands out from the rest
• Most secure payment processing gateways
• Smooth & easy to perform checkout process and much more…

It is easy to have custom eCommerce development as there are ready to deploy pre-built websites with templates available, but if you need something extra to meet your specific needs, there you need to hire the eCommerce development services.

But before your plan to partner with the eCommerce web developers, here are the 8 steps that you need to know, before handling them your dream project of eCommerce web development.

eCommerce Web Development – Get Your Online Store Ready in 8 Simple Steps

1. Select a functional & effective website builder

For eCommerce website development, you need eCommerce platforms/builders. There are several eCommerce website development platforms available that differ by their prices & features. You need to discuss with your eCommerce web developers about which builder would suit your requirements the best. Here are the few platforms that dominate the market:

• Shopify is one of the powerful & recognized web development platforms that come with infinite features to develop an intuitive & scalable website. The platform provides a great ability to interact and sell with platforms like Facebook, Amazon, and more.
• BigCommerce is another most demanded website builder that comes with exceptional SEO features & tools that helps with optimizing the website for searches.
• WooCommerce which is an extension of the popular platform WordPress is great from small to complex web needs.
• Magento is another builder that is best when it comes to delivering user experience, the builder helps with analytics, content creation, integrating advertisements, etc.

Test each of the platforms & buy its full version based on your affordability & requirements.

2.  Get a domain name

A domain is your brand name that is a part of your URL. The domain name is supposed to be carefully thought as it helps in attracting & retaining the customers.

A few tips to select the right domain name:

• Use .com domain if you wish to sell globally. 
• Don’t put popular brands or their product in your domain name.
• It should be easy to pronounce & search yet unique from others.
• Find a keyword-centric domain name to get rankings.

3. Pick an intuitive & navigable template

Get easy to scroll & use templates. Navigable & appealing templates help you retain the buyers for long. 

• The most important features your eCommerce website must contain are – Product Pages, Category pages, Header & Footer, Image Gallery, Design and color theme, Navigation bar. Look for a template with these features over your website builder.
• Ensure that the design template you have selected is compatible to work over different browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla, Opera or so.
• Select a responsive theme that adjusts well according to the size or orientation of mobile devices. 
• Choose a theme that allows you customizations later on in terms of changing font, size, color, or so.
• Select a theme that is SEO-friendly and has all the elements in a great hierarchy that search engines find suitable for crawling.

4. Add products with catchy description & images

Fill in your design with well-captured images & SEO-optimized description to rank higher in the search engines.

• Use high-quality stock images with clear visibility, there should be a contrast between the product & its background in the images, ensure to use the real product images as you would promise to deliver.
• Your product’s descriptions should be solution-oriented and must contain the answers to the user’s query as to why they should buy your products.
• Mention all the product’s attributes in pointers and optimize the descriptions with keywords or phrases that are most searched on search engines by your target audience.

5. Add robust payment methods

Add secured payment gateways that connect well with Google Pay, PayPal, Credit cards, debit cards & more payment methods easily. Also, add COD (cash on delivery) for others.

• When setting up your payment gateway, you can include secured payment processing platforms like PayPal, Stripe, 2Checkout, Google Checkout, ApplePay or so.
• Each payment processing has its separate methods to integrate with eCommerce websites over different platforms – which you can consult about with an eCommerce web development company. 
• And to initially start with the process, you need to have a merchant account – which is a separate account than your personal one – where all the retail money will be procured from transactions.
• Choose a payment processing brand that is usable, compatible round the clock functionality & platforms, has speed, possess encryption standards, has invoicing capabilities, or more.

6. Get a smart & integrated shipping option

Integrate an automated & smart shipping option to help users easily order & receive their product.

The popular eCommerce website builders like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento offer smart shipping capabilities via additional plugins installation. The shipping capabilities that you can consider for your eCommerce website via additional plugins are:

• Tracking facility
• Invoice and payment slip generation
• Shipping to multiple addresses
• Blocking fake customers
• Shipping notifications
• Advanced flat rate shipping capabilities

There are several plugins available over different website builders that you can install to get more shipping capabilities to your website.

7. Take time to manage your store settings

To ensure your website is functional 24*7, you & your eCommerce web developers need to look into your platform’s store setting to identify the language of your website, the currency you want to deal with, time zone, your office address, your contact details, and much more to make your website look authentic & professional.

• You can sell in multiple languages and currencies, for that you can visit the store languages and payments section of your opted builder and set the requirements accordingly.
• You can put the office address – make sure it is your official address from where you do your business or a physical mailing address.
• You can set the time zone in-store settings based on your location.
• You can put the contact details of your business – where you want your customers to contact you.

8. Test your website & publish it

To avoid the dampening of user experience & sales make sure to test your website multiple times – as any small failure, while the website is live, it can cost you heavy. Here are the few important things your eCommerce development services need to take a closer look at while testing your website:

a.) The functionality of the website

• Make sure your website is mobile responsive.
• Has original & user-centric content.
• Make sure all the functions, buttons, CTAs, features, links are clickable & don’t take much time to open & serve.
• Make sure the website is speedy.
• It has no heavy features or images and is responsive to open on any web browser that users use.

b.) Smooth checkout process

• See if all payment options are well aligned.
• The order details are visible throughout the checking process.
• Taxes, discounts, or any levied charges are visible to the buyer.
• Refund policies are clearly visible.
• Try by ordering a product & refunding it. See the time taken to perform the purchase shouldn’t be much hefty & long.

Final thoughts on Custom eCommerce Development!

The eCommerce web development may look very heavy to perform but once done successfully, you can get some remarkable results. With these tips, you can quickly have your custom eCommerce development done. Hire eCommerce development services that could help you plan and implement your online store to help with exceptional user experience & sales gains.

Source: https://lerablog.org/technology/web-design/ecommerce-website-development-in-just-8-simple-steps/