9 Steps For eCommerce Website Development
You cannot just start with the eCommerce website development right away without having prior knowledge of the product, targeted market, and general eCommerce development-related processes.
You would additionally want to understand the basic website designing, branding, and content strategy apart from the product knowledge and the related market.
So, we have laid down each process in detail for your better understanding throughout the rest of this article.
1. Identify what you want to sell
To brainstorm about what you would want to sell is the first and foremost step of eCommerce development.
If there is something you would like to talk about, listen about, read about, and you'd like to use, identify that passion of yours – because you can transform that hobby of yours into an online business.
It would be beneficial for you to build an online store around that particular niche that inspires and motivates you. But this isn't always the case – you can also identify a need in the specific market and jump in with the product solutions you think can fulfill your potential customer's requirements.
Your eCommerce project should be guided by the research about the products and the customers you are hoping to do business with.
You need to think ahead of time – knowing about how few products succeed, how some fail to create an impression, and what could be the requirements of your prospects in the future.
While many established brands are working online, you may create your own space by being unique in your offers, branding, and giving the best customer service your prospects could ever think of.
2. Ecommerce Business Model
While there are four types of Business Models (B2B, B2C, C2B, C2C) exists, the two main categories are B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business).
B2C: where items are sold from business to direct customers without having a third party.
B2B: When business manufacture items or act as a wholesaler for another business, it comes under B2B business model.
3. Prospects
Starting an online business around a niche market known to you could give you an added advantage over others who are newbies and don't know the market well. Even then, you must understand what your website visitors would like to see upon their arrival to your online store, be it website layout, Content, product segmentation, availability of chatbot/Virtual agent, and more.
In addition to the information mentioned above, you need to be well informed about their background, age bracket, income range, and general preferences.
4. Brand and Domain Name
Your brand name is a part of your brand identity; making it unique, concise, and avoiding cliches should be your priority. While you decide on your brand name, make sure to check the domain availability online. You do not want to brainstorm for a couple of weeks or even months and then get to know that particular domain name is not available, taken, or too expensive to buy.
5. Website Designing
One of the most critical factors in eCommerce website development is how you plan on branding. Your web design should give the best user experience to your visitors, and to make it happen, you need to create a design prototype for your online store. The reason for creating a prototype is that you can finalize all about your web layout before development and can show it to all of your stakeholders for approval.
Wondershare Mockitt is the best tool that will help you to create a prototype in a few easy steps.
Get registered through your email, create a new project, select your screen size (Mobile, web layout. Tablet, and more), include useful widgets and icons, upload images and texts, create internal linking, and voila, your prototype will be ready.
Now, you must be thinking, what now? From here, you can have all your stakeholders on board and let them give you some useful tips to improve that design. If they are busy and can't join you, no worries, share the link with them, and they can see that prototype whenever they get free.
Mockitt is equally user friendly for the professionals and the Novice designer, so if you are someone who has already developed many online stores, you are more than welcome. Suppose you are working on your first project and never designed a prototype before – in that case, it's even better – because Mockitt will spark your creativity by giving you a fresh perspective with multiple elements to choose from.
So, make sure your web design connects you to your visitors – make them feel special. With the help of a compelling copy, not only can you build their trust but can also persuade them to purchase something from your online store. Create Emotional Resonance!
Along with the basic design, make sure that the product categories are well defined, and the product images are taken from every possible angle. Product descriptions should be able to tell your visitors what are the benefits they can get if they purchase your product.
Navigational menus should guide your customers to understand what to do after they select a particular product. A clear Call to Action should be visible beside the product. Simply put, your store visitor must find it easy to navigate within your website
6. Ecommerce development company
Do not get overwhelmed here as you will come across a couple of options. You can either go with Shopify, WordPress, or Magento eCommerce development plans. They all have their advantages and disadvantages, so choose wisely based on the below factors.
- Does that platform provide a consistent experience on Websites, Mobiles, and Tablets?
- How useful is their product management feature?
- Shopping Cart and Check out customization options
- Availability of Payment processing Gateways (Apple Pay, Stripe, PayPal, Google Pay)
7. Content strategy
You need to strategize your Content well before the website development. However, you will implement and change that plan after you create your website – that's why we are talking about the Content at this point. Content includes write-ups, videos, infographics, images, and other media types.
Use keyword research tools and understand what kind of questions people generally ask related to your product type. Build your content strategy around it as this would help your Content appear in a better position in search engines result.
8. Search Engine Optimization
SEO is of vital importance when it comes to getting organized traffic to your website. Without proper SEO, no one would visit your page, and ultimately products will not be sold.
- Do better keyword research
- Keep all of the headers and meta tags as per the SEO
- Integrate analytics tool to get better data analysis
- Use optimized images
Note: SEO is way more than the points mentioned above, so apply all of the Optimization techniques.
9. Shipping Software
Select suitable software for the orders and shipping fulfillment. Some of the features which you should consider while you select software are mentioned below.
- Store integration
- Ability to print shipping & return labels
- Customers tracking information
- Carrier selection
Note: Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, but it gave you an idea.
We have briefly discussed all the steps of an eCommerce website development. Many other companies are giving eCommerce development services, so choose the one that could fulfill your tailored requirements.