The first step to making a successful e-commerce website starts with efficient web design and development. It doesn’t matter if your ads are effective at reaching your target audience; unless you’ optimise your site for search engine optimisation (SEO), you won’t gain enough leads.
Fortunately, with proper research and planning, you can increase your customer base and reach a broader audience by incorporating various digital marketing strategies. Some of these include SEO, social media marketing, and many more.
Asides from digital marketing, your primary objective is to utilise web development techniques that will improve your site’s performance. Because of this, it seems like your next course of action is to enhance your e-commerce website by tweaking its interface and layout. However, there’s more to it than meets the eye. It’s better to understand what makes a great e-commerce website in the first place.
Let’s understand the development process of e-commerce websites, starting with the different types.
Types Of E-Commerce Websites
1. Business To Business (B2B)
B2B e-commerce websites are businesses that exchange goods and services with other companies. These types of e-commerce businesses can include office furniture stores, software companies, IT agencies, and hardware tool suppliers, among many others.
2. Business To Consumer (B2C)
When you think about e-commerce, a B2C type of website is the first thing that should come to mind. B2C e-commerce websites are online stores that sell products and services to consumers. Examples of B2C businesses include clothing brands, toy shops, and online stores in general that cater to consumers.
3. Consumer To Consumer (C2C)
While e-commerce has benefited businesses all over the world, consumers can join in with the fun by selling products of their own. Popular C2C e-commerce websites are Shopee, Lazada, Amazon, and even eBay.
4. Consumer To Business (C2B)
C2B e-commerce is a type of website that involves consumers selling products to businesses. An example of a C2B type of e-commerce includes social media influencers who endorse products for a fee.
Choosing The Right E-Commerce Platform
Managing an online business is a smart way to make a profit, but most of your success will depend on the early stages of planning—which includes choosing the right platform.
There are many effective e-commerce platforms, with each one having its pros and cons. Some of them are free to use, while others require payment. However, in this list, we’ll be talking about some of the best e-commerce platforms based on their popularity and variety of tools.
1. Shopify
Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms for many reasons: it’s user-friendly, offers 24/7 customer service, and can be integrated with social media. Shopify is perfect for online stores with rich and diverse products.
However, you’ll need to pay if you want to use Shopify’s starter package. Not to mention, additional payment is required to gain access to Shopify’s advanced features.
2. Magento
For startups and small businesses, Magento is the perfect place to set up an online shop. Magento and its features allow you to display unlimited products with thousands of extensions. Plus, the interface runs at a smooth pace.
The problem with Magento is that it can be complicated to use at first. That’s why you should acquire a few essential web development skills before you use Magento.
3. WooCommerce
If you’re already using WordPress, WooCommerce seems like the best choice for you. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, meaning you can easily integrate the platform for your e-commerce website.
WooCommerce is free to use, offers various modes of payment, and boasts hundreds of plugins. Consider using WooCommerce if you’re on a tight budget.
E-Commerce Web Development: Factors To Consider
When running an online store, your customers are always the priority. What do they want? What do they need? These are questions that you should ask yourself so you can answer one final question: What can you give to them in return for their trust?
To answer that question, let’s take a look at some factors that will affect your customer’s purchasing decisions.
- Responsive Web Design – Responsive web design refers to enhancing your website for users. Doing so includes optimising your website for mobile devices, compressing images, and revamping your content.
- Site Performance – Slow loading times are a red flag for your customers, which is why you should improve your site performance. To do so, you should optimise your images, use caching, and combine resource files to speed up the process.
- SEO – To reach your target audience, you need to boost your site’s SEO. Boosting your site’s SEO will improve its search engine rankings and increase its web visibility.
Conclusion
Managing an e-commerce website can be difficult at first. That’s why you must research the fundamentals of e-commerce web development so you can familiarise yourself with the basics. In any case, consider getting in touch with a professional web developer if you want to know more about developing e-commerce websites.
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