eCommerce websites enable customers to research, browse and purchase products and services with just a few clicks from anywhere at any time.
Developing an eCommerce website is an increasingly popular investment decision among most retailers, business owners, entrepreneurs and commercial enterprises. Professional eCommerce sites enhance customer relationships with a brand and transform a business’s online shopping presence and experience. This effectively creates a consistent and reliable revenue stream for the business.
What is eCommerce website development?
Building and developing an eCommerce website is a step-by-step process. Several factors come into play, including branding, user experience across devices, website performance and payment gateways. Creating an efficient eCommerce website will give your business multiple competitive advantages, including:
New markets — Reaching out to various national and international target consumers.
Lower costs — Reducing operational and commercial costs linked to maintaining a physical store.
High accessibility — 24/7 accessibility to your site will increase sales volume.
Gain insight — Tracking and analysing consumer behaviour by studying data on products and marketing campaigns.
Type of eCommerce websites
B2C — These sites are specially designed to display and promote products that businesses want to directly sell to the consumer, like fashion products, gadgets, lifestyle accessories, and furniture.
B2B — Most businesses and enterprises are opting to build eCommerce platforms to promote their products and services to other businesses. This increases their reach locally and helps them target internal markets in their service niche.
C2C — With the onset of online marketplaces, the trend of enabling regular individuals and retailers to sell their products to their consumers has risen. The C2C eCommerce websites act as portals for direct transactions between two individuals like eBay, Etsy and Craigslist.
How is eCommerce website development different from other website development?
The purpose of having a regular website is to display and promote a business’s products and services. An eCommerce website takes this a step further by empowering the target consumer to browse through the products and make quick purchase decisions leading to instant revenue for the business.
While both types of websites are developed using similar tools and programs, they can vary in complexity. Compared to regular websites, eCommerce websites have extensive back-end development complexities in HTML and CSS. They need to include features like product categorisation, customer support, SSL, and payment gateway integrations while being navigation-friendly for the end-user.
Important factors consider while developing an eCommerce website
A well-designed eCommerce website will help boost sales but also fuel client retention, return customers, and increase brand trust and loyalty. Factors that need to be considered during development include:
Website security and safety — A secure website will reassure your visitors that their personal and payment data will be safe and secured without any risk.
User-friendly interface design — This enhances user experience and enables target customers to make a purchase in easy and quick steps.
Mobile-friendly — A good eCommerce website translates across devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Efficient payment methods — Adding all payment options and ensuring smoother checkout processes will help create a more successful site.
What is an eCommerce website development timeline?
The eCommerce website development timeline usually depends on multiple factors, including the type of business and the available resources. The timeline also varies if you choose to build your website using a pre-designed template on platforms such as Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace or if you want to create your website from scratch with personalised elements and features. Website development projects can take anywhere between 3 to 6 months.
Hiring professional website developers to build and create your eCommerce site will help save time and money to bring your vision to life.
Developing your eCommerce website with Bapple
At Bapple, we will guide you through our personalised and collaborative creative eCommerce website design process. Our team works with you through multiple rounds of design until you are satisfied with the results. We are focused on empowering your business’s growth, so our work is conducted with industry-leading research, copywriting, and SEO optimisation in mind to empower your business’s growth. Contact us today to learn more about how Bapple can create your eCommerce website and can help take your business to the next step today.
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