Ecommerce website development is the process of creating a web store that allows users to buy and sell products online. Ecommerce businesses need to have a solid website as this is where most of their customers will interact with them. Choosing the right platform can be difficult, but it’s necessary when planning your project. This article will show you how to choose an ecommerce platform and walk through some of the most popular options available today.
What is an Ecommerce website?
An ecommerce website is a website that allows customers to buy products or services online. Ecommerce websites are used by businesses to sell their products or services and can be built on any platform, including WordPress.
Where to Begin with Ecommerce Website Development
Before you start on your ecommerce project, it’s important to define the problem you are trying to solve. This will help you stay focused on the goal and avoid getting distracted by other options that may be more appealing but less effective. If you’re having trouble deciding what exactly your goal is, try asking yourself these questions:
- What do I want? (For example: To make more money or become more efficient.)
- How much do I need? (For example, $1 million in revenue or two extra hours per day.)
- How will I keep customers returning and recommending my business?
Choose the Right Platform for Your Ecommerce Website Development
When it comes to ecommerce website development, there are many platforms available. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to choose the right one for your business goals and budget.
Here are some things you should consider before deciding on a platform:
- What kind of customer experience do you want? Do your customers prefer shopping online or in person? Are they more likely to buy products they can touch and feel before buying? Or do they prefer purchasing items that can only be purchased online (such as books or movies)? If so, then WooCommerce may be a good option for ecommerce website development because it offers features such as product variations and recurring payments through PayPal Pro.
- How much money do I have available for ecommerce website development? Budget can be a major factor in which platform to choose. Keep reading to find out more about the different platforms and how they compare in terms of budget needed.
What Platform Should You Use for Your Ecommerce Website Development?
An ecommerce website platform is a tool that allows you to build your online store quickly and easily, without having to write any code. A platform will also include pre-built features such as payment gateways, shipping integrations, and inventory management.
A website builder is usually used for non-ecommerce websites (for example, blogs). While these tools can help you design your site visually, they don’t offer the same level of functionality as an ecommerce website platform or CMS (such as WordPress).
WordPress
WordPress is a popular ecommerce website development platform. It’s free and open source, which means you own your website. WordPress also has an extensive community of developers who create plugins that allow you to customize your website however you want.
WordPress is easy to use, making it a good choice for small businesses that don’t have much experience with websites or programming languages.
Shopify
Shopify is a good choice for small businesses. It’s easy to set up and use, and has a large number of apps and services available. If you want to customize your store with different themes, Shopify has plenty of options for you to choose from.
It also has a large number of apps and services available for you to use. The only downside is that it can be more expensive than some other options, but if you’re looking for a robust ecommerce solution, Shopify may be the right choice for you.
Squarespace
Squarespace is an ecommerce website development platform that allows you to create your website. It’s great for ecommerce because it has many features, including
- A dedicated ecommerce store builder with templates, drag-and-drop functionality, and more.
- A built-in shopping cart with real-time inventory tracking and order management tools so you can manage your orders from anywhere at any time!
Wix
Wix is an ecommerce website builder that lets you create an online store quickly and easily. It’s easy to get started with Wix since there are no coding skills required for building your site.
The free option gives you access to all the essentials: you can create up to unlimited products and (up to) 500MB of storage and (up to) 500MB of bandwidth (which is more than enough for most small businesses). If this sounds right up your alley but still not quite enough space or flexibility for what you want to do with your website–or if you want some extra features like landing pages or newsletters–we recommend upgrading to one of their paid plans.
SEO for Ecommerce Website Development
SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in search results. It’s important because it helps your website rank higher in search results and gets more traffic.
Many different factors go into SEO optimization in an ecommerce website development, but here are some general guidelines:
- Make sure your site has an XML sitemap (a list of all pages on your site) so that Google can easily crawl it and index all its content quickly. You can do this by installing an XML sitemap generator plugin on WordPress or manually creating one using Google Search Console’s webmaster tools account (see below).
- Use keywords on page titles, meta descriptions, headings, and subheadings where appropriate for each page/post type being created for the site (ecommerce product pages would have different requirements than blog posts). This will help with both rankings and conversions since users will know immediately what they’re looking at when they see those elements appear on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Web hosting
Web hosting is the service that allows you to upload your website’s files to a server. Web hosts provide space on their servers for you to store your files. This is usually done for a monthly fee, but some hosts offer free hosting options as well.
Hosting services provide tools for managing websites that make it easier for developers without any technical skills to keep their sites running smoothly. They often include website backups in case anything goes wrong with your website so that no data is lost forever–which can be essential if there’s been an attack by hackers who have stolen all of your customer data!
Security
Security is an important consideration when choosing an e-commerce platform. You want to make sure that your customers’ information and credit card data are secure, so you must choose a platform that has been tested for security vulnerabilities and is built with security in mind in your ecommerce website development.
In addition to keeping your customer information safe from hackers, some platforms also offer additional layers of protection, such as encryption or firewalls. For example, WordPress offers SSL encryption for all their hosted sites, which means that even if someone were able to access your site through another website, they would not be able to see any of the information stored there because it would be encrypted before being sent out over the internet.
Backups
The backup process is a crucial part of ecommerce website development, and it’s important to ensure that your data is always safe. There are two ways to store backups: in the cloud or on a hard drive. Cloud-based backups are generally more secure than local ones, but they also cost more per month because you have to pay for storage. If you choose this option, make sure that the cloud provider has good security features so that no one can access your files without permission.
Local hard drives work too–you need one computer with enough space for all of your website’s files and also an external drive where these files can be saved for safekeeping at all times.
Maintenance
Once you have your site up and running, it’s time to maintain it. This is not just a matter of keeping your website up-to-date with new content or making sure it looks good on mobile devices; it also means keeping the site secure from hackers and protecting yourself from any potential disasters that could occur.
Updates
Updates are a great way to keep your website fresh and up-to-date. If you don’t make updates, your visitors will lose interest in visiting your site as they get bored by seeing the same old content over and over again. This can also is not great for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes since Google ranks websites that haven’t been updated in months or years lower in search results.
Plugins
Plugins are a great way to extend the functionality of your ecommerce website. These small programs can be used to add features like a shopping cart, user registration, and more.
A plugin is simply a piece of software that adds functionality or features to another piece of software. If you have ever installed an app on your smartphone (like Instagram), then you have used something similar to a plugins!
Responsiveness
Responsive design is the most important aspect of your ecommerce website’s development, as it ensures that your products and content are easily accessible across all devices. The most common way to measure responsiveness is by using a web browser’s “width” feature and making sure that your website looks good no matter what size screen you’re viewing it on. To ensure this happens, we use fluid grids and media queries (which allow us to change things like font sizes) so that everything remains sharp regardless of how much or little space is available for our layout elements.
One thing to keep in mind: responsive design doesn’t just mean making sure your website looks great on mobile phones! It also means ensuring that desktop users can access all of the same information they would find on their phone without having any issues navigating through menus or scrolling down long pages without accidentally clicking something else along the way—and vice versa!
Make your choice based on your requirements.
Choosing the right ecommerce platform for your business is a personal decision. You should choose the platform that best meets your needs and fits your budget. If you’re a small business, consider platforms that are easy to use and maintain–and if you’re a large business, consider which features are most important to your business’s growth.
There are many ecommerce website development platforms to choose from, but each one has its benefits and drawbacks.
If you’re just starting, or if your business needs are straightforward, there’s no need to choose an expensive platform. You can get started with Squarespace or Wix. However, if your ecommerce website has complex features like inventory management or customer relationship management (CRM) tools that require a lot of customization and programming work, then it might be worth investing in one of the more robust platforms, such as Woo Commerce for WordPress.
Here are some things to consider when choosing an ecommerce platform:
- Budget – How much money do you want/need to invest? The more inexpensive platforms offer limited functionality, while paid ones offer more options at higher prices; however, both options will require monthly fees.
- Business goals – What do you want out of your ecommerce website development? Do your goals align with your chosen business offers? What kind of support does each offer post-launch? Are there any limitations on growth potential due to technical requirements like design capabilities (ease of use), search engine optimization (SEO), etc.
At the end of the day, it’s all about finding the right platform for your ecommerce website development. If you’re just starting and don’t have much funding, we recommend using an option like Wix. However, if you want more control over design and functionality, then WordPress may be a better option for you.