When the internet boomed, a lot of things changed. Social media changed the way we communicated and connected with other people, the best eCommerce solution and software changed the way we work and online shops changed the way we consumed goods — introducing us to the world of online shopping! One thing that many businesses have been learning along the way is eCommerce development and mobile app development.

Gone were the days wherein people had to grab their cars and go out to book certain services or to buy certain products. The internet and modern technology brought stores to the palm of their hands and products to their doorsteps. Furthermore, e-Commerce also introduced users to varieties of fresh brands!

Budding business owners now have the ability to turn their pipe-dreams into reality without spending large amounts of money that the previous generations needed. All they had to do was cultivate a brand, produce products and create a website with a responsive website design.

Unfortunately, designing and developing E-commerce websites is not easy. While it may be all fun and games for expert development teams, if you don’t know much about E-commerce website development, things won’t be so easy.

So, to start the post-Covid era right, Creatitive is here to help up-and-coming online stores with its guide to eCommerce development! With this in mind, let’s get started with a crash course in the eCommerce business and online shopping.

A Brief History of Online Store and Shopping

ecommerce shopping experience

The idea of electronic shopping started way earlier than most people think. English inventor Michael Aldrich first introduced it to the public in 1979 by connecting a modified TV to a computer and then processing transactions using a telephone line.

His invention made it possible for closed information systems to be used and shared by outside parties — which then became the foundation of today’s e-Commerce industry. Years later, the internet was finally commercialized by 1991 when Amazon started selling books and Pierre Omidyar created e-Bay. Soon enough, the two sites become the go-to for anything that’s being sold online.

Soon enough, it became a norm — so much so that the industry grew significantly. All the while the number of E-commerce businesses also skyrocketed over the last 14 years. Additionally, experts predict that the trend will not slow down over the next few years.

Growth projection has revealed that its revenue will exceed $638 billion in the last year of 2020 in the US alone. Taking a look at the global market, experts also see an upward trajectory in the coming years. Obviously, the industry offers a lot of great opportunities for up-and-coming brands and budding business owners.

All that’s left is the eCommerce development itself.

How e-Commerce Development Services Benefit Your Business

Admittedly, building E-commerce websites is no easy feat, especially if you don’t have the expertise most E-commerce web developers have. Despite this, it’s best for brands and business owners to know the basic process of creating an e-commerce site and web development.

Strategizing and Discovering

Just like any website or marketing campaign, you must start with a discovery phase. If you’re not familiar with what discovery stages or website discovery sessions are, we have an entire article explaining the process and why it matters to websites and web stores.

But in a nutshell, discovery sessions are often used to discuss the business’ goals, their target audiences, and their buying cycle as well as the metrics they will use to measure results. Once this phase is over, experts advise that brands take their time in building one solid plan.

Each website we see online is tailor-made for its owner and its goals. While it may seem like they’re all the same, each site was created from one strategy. With this in mind, experts believe that brands should start strategizing first before jumping into anything else.

Nowadays, it’s not enough for brands to just plan for today. If your business’ life heavily depends on your site, then you must have a solid strategy that anticipates every need and challenge you will face as you grow further. Think about the features you’d want your commerce website to have once it surpasses its initial goal.

Finding The Right eCommerce Platform

For those who are unfamiliar with eCommerce platforms, they are software created to help in creating commerce website stores. Finding the right eCommerce platform is crucial to the success of an online store — so much so that it’s considered the very first step to its actual development.

Brands have the liberty to choose between two kinds of platforms; hosted and self-hosted. The main difference between the two is the eCommerce solutions it offers. Self-hosted platforms provide their clients with the basic code alone. It will not offer additional development services like hosting the site.

On the other hand, hosted platforms offer all-in-one eCommerce development services that include hosting, technical support, and more!

While it may be true that self-hosted platforms are much harder to set up and would often require the expertise of developers, hosted platforms often come at a more expensive price tag.

Should you choose the former eCommerce solution, you can now proceed to pick your hosting platform!

Choosing your eCommerce Website Host

Choosing your hosting platform is another crucial stage for your site. This is because the right hosting platform will determine whether your shop will be up and running as well as whether it will be accessible and efficient.

Some of the important factors you need to keep in mind when it comes to choosing eCommerce solutions and hosting services are its security, uptime, speed, and support.

Website Design and Web Development Services

During this period, brands often start looking into eCommerce development companies as well as their services. This is because while it may seem like designing a commerce store is all about pleasing aesthetics, it’s more technical than most people think.

To have the best eCommerce business store, you need all design, development, and user experience to work together to form a responsive and user-friendly online store and later on a mobile app.

Web design means thinking about user interfaces, shopping experiences, and payment gateways — not just pleasing aesthetics. Additionally, the development of the site itself is even more technical. You would need developers to build the site itself.

eCommerce Web Testing

Once the website is done, the testing phase will commence. It’s crucial that a website is tested across different browsers as well as different platforms and devices.

Testing includes observing the site’s usability, convenience, and design. It’s also during this phase when developers would look into bugs that may affect the overall user experience.

Mobile App Development Services

Lastly, with all the app development demands today, having your mobile app is not an option anymore. When your eCommerce website goes live, people will automatically search for your app as well. That means potential customers and leads!

So, if you feel like app development is merely an option, and that it isn’t as important as web development services, this is us telling you otherwise.

The Advantages of eCommerce Businesses Over an Actual Store

Here, we’ll consider the advantages of the eCommerce business design as well as why it has actually ended up being a much more appealing option than a brick-and-mortar business.

1. Reduced Startup Cost

Establishing an eCommerce company requires a reduced startup investment compared to the other commerce choices. A typical shop usually needs numerous shop locations as well as offices to run in addition to financial investments in-store design, arrangement, as well as stock.

An eCommerce business solution lowers the expense by eliminating the need for many physical areas and a multitude of workers.

It’s additionally possible to cut the expense even more by picking a certain sort of organization model.

2. Comprehensive Market Reach

Among the benefits of having online visibility is the much broader reach your eCommerce store will certainly have. The majority of consumers begin their item searches on an online system, making eCommerce a suitable means to get even more customers.

Putting your organization online puts your products and services up and be obtainable globally. By using an eCommerce website, you’re able to cover a much wider location contrasted to physical shops.

3. Availability

Online shops are always open for companies, which offers consumers the choice to make a purchase anytime they like.

Individuals who live busy lives or do not have a physical store in their area where they can visit and also buy from can browse your online shop without having to leave their homes.

An eCommerce website with superb uptime and automated order handling will certainly offer you the capacity to create consistent profits without having to stress over administrative work for laborers.

4. Advanced Automation

Automation is one of the very best benefits of eCommerce. From taking care of repayments and sending out marketing emails to upgrading your stock and also supplying consumer assistance with a chatbot, it reduces the number of employees you’ll have to work with.

With these benefits in position, you’re free to handle the advertising project as well as monitoring aspects of your company.

Automation minimizes the danger of clerical errors too. If your automated systems are operating properly, you don’t have any worries about sending an e-mail, product, or cost to the wrong person or address.

5. Client Retargeting

While several clients watch a range of pertinent items, some will certainly check the product details and just leave without checking out the purchase.

With a user-friendly eCommerce website, you can recoup the sales possibility by engaging in consumer retargeting. It’s an ad campaign that presents online advertisements of watched but unpurchased items to the corresponding site visitors of your eCommerce website.

It’s an efficient internet marketing method that can not be achieved when doing business in a physical store as there is normally no other way of speaking to a customer after they leave.

6. Scalable

As your organization grows, you will certainly need to engage with an ever-increasing amount of clients.

With eCommerce web development, you’ll only need to upgrade your hosting plan as well as eCommerce solutions to deal with more traffic. Any marketing campaign can additionally be readjusted by boosting the ad budget.

The exact same approach can’t be performed with a physical store. See, in order to fit even more consumers, you’ll require an expansion of your facilities. This will certainly cost a lot more than having to scale an eCommerce website.

Work with an eCommerce Development Company Today

Admittedly, developing an eCommerce website is no easy feat. It requires knowledge and skill sets that can only be obtained through several years of developing different sites!

With this in mind, marketing experts suggest hiring a web development team from well-established sports digital marketing companies like Creatitive!

With years of experience in marketing, Creatitive will help make you the best website for your eCommerce store.

From web design, front-end development, website strategy expertise, and making sure your payment process is safe. We got your back.

The great thing about collaborating with a team of experts — aside from the reassurance of a seamless and informed development process — is that they are driven to bring their client’s dreams to life for a cost-effective price!

Do you need help with mobile app development too? Let Creatitive find the best eCommerce solution for you. Call us, and let us turn your dream online shop into reality with us!

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