How to Build an Efficient E-commerce Website

Today Generation Z only knows the world where the internet exists. From reading the news to buying products, all are done via the internet without leaving home, which makes 12 million companies interested in building e-commerce websites. Currently, 81% of retail shoppers are more likely to conduct online research before buying any products.

If retail shops want to generate more revenue, they need to attract more customers as well as sell products online. That’s why they need an online presence. To make a strong online presence, you need to build an efficient e-commerce website because it will help you to empower your business to get attention from new customers. If you have a startup, building an efficient website will introduce your business to the worldwide market and enhance your brand recognition even before you are becoming famous with your physical store.

Hiring a website development company will help you to take control over the customer experience of your website from branding to shipping. You can do it by yourself or you can hire any website developer to build an efficient e-commerce website. But before starting to build it, you need to know the steps. Here, we are going to discuss how to build a successful e-commerce website.

Why Is Creating an E-commerce Website Important?

Growing internet technology brings many benefits to an e-commerce business. To take advantage of these benefits, you need to have an e-commerce website. Here are some reasons why creating a website for an e-commerce business is important which is mentioned below:

When your company owns an e-commerce website, it will give consumers an opportunity to access their choice of products and services and if they want to buy those products or services, they can whenever they want. While traditional marketing will still reach the same number of customers, companies committed to traditional marketing will also have the same number of customers.

Creating an online e-commerce website helps you to increase your brand awareness by developing your online presence as well as attracting more potential customers to your products or services which makes it easier to keep engaging your customers as well as find out what they want. Providing quality products or services, it will help you to keep in touch with your existing customers which means creating an e-commerce website gives you an opportunity to build a strong relationship with your customers.

An effective e-commerce platform introduces you to making more sales by selling products or services straight away. You have to invest a large amount for buying an e-commerce website but you need a strong as well as compelling strategy to grow an e-commerce business online.

How to Create an E-commerce Website for Free

Building an e-commerce platform may seem easy but it is not. You might need help from e-commerce experts. Although there are many e-commerce solutions out there, which can make your work easy for you. Though you give the responsibility to the best e-commerce company, still you need to have knowledge of the following steps on how to create an e-commerce website.

1. Choose the Right E-commerce Platform for Your Business
2. Create a Domain Name
3. Hire a Developer
4. Customize an E-commerce Template
5. Add You Products Which You Want to Sell
6. Create a Payment Option
7. Set up Your Shipping Setting
8. Test and Publish Your Online E-commerce Store

1. Choose the Right E-commerce Platform for Your Business

It is important to choose the right e-commerce platform as per your business requirement before jumping into building an e-commerce website because it helps to fulfill your products and business needs. There are plenty of e-commerce platforms worldwide Like open-source platforms which refer to any e-commerce software which allows everyone to access its source code for free. It offers users to customize as well as modify their e-commerce website. However, for using it, you need to have knowledge of advanced coding languages.

As it is open to all, It makes concern over security breaches. Most of the time users end up hiring people for maintaining website security which costs much more than taking subscriptions to another e-commerce platform. However, you can choose a content Management system to build an effective e-commerce website. WordPress is the best CMS platform for beginners. Moreover, there are plenty of CMS systems available for creating an e-commerce platform such as Shopify, Wix, Square Online, and more.

2. Create a Domain Name

After choosing the e-commerce platform for creating your website, you need a domain name. If you already have a domain, you just need to share it with your online store builder. If you don’t have a domain name then while creating it, you need to make it easy to remember and avoid writing creatively. However, if you use a name that already exists, and other websites have better SEO ranking, then you will end up losing your potential customers. Create a unique domain name by adding your brand name to it.

3. Hire a Developer

It is crucial to hire a developer when you have a short time for launching your e-commerce website in a professional manner. When it is about hiring a developer, it is better to consult with other e-commerce websites or you can research online.

After selecting your developers, ask them how long they are expected to finish the project before launching the website. Make sure they create an outline of the strategy which they wish to implement. If your developer has knowledge of Graphic design, it is good for you that you don’t have to hire any individuals for graphic design. You can ask them whether they have any experience or not.

More often, startup companies or entrepreneurs hire developers without discussing their business requirements, which will lead the project nowhere. So. don’t let this happen to you, make sure you discuss your business requirement with your developer before starting to build your website. Also, you can contact the best e-commerce company in Kolkata.

4. Customize an E-commerce Template

Once you’ve selected your developers, now it is time to consider your website for a theme or template. There are various templates available in the CMS platforms. You can choose pre-built templates which give your website a consistent look. But if you want advanced designs and features, you can purchase from the paid templates which are also available on CMS platforms. It costs around $30 to over $200 to purchase a premium theme on WordPress and on Shopify. While Choosing customized e-commerce templates, keep the following tips in mind:

1. Easy to navigate which offers a better customer experience
2. How well does the template’s homepage reflect your brand?
3. Customization options
4. How many images can you add to the template?
5. How can your products be displayed on the screen?

5. Add You Products Which You Want to Sell

Project pages are those pages that most of your users come to buy for. So, it is the important essential page on your website because this page will show your customers what you have for them. Make sure your product is displayed properly on the screen of the user’s devices.

Adding product descriptions with the product images will help your website offer more value to your customers and also allow the bot to scroll as well as index your project pages. Try to avoid writing complex and long sentences, and make sure your users find the following answers in your product description:

1. The products are available for whom?
2. What features do you have in the product?
3. When can the product be used?
4. Where can the product be used?

Use high-quality images for your products to engage your customers. It will help your product stand out from others. When you use quality and same-size images, it makes your product more appealing and offers more value to your potential customers.

6. Create a Payment Option

After you have completed the following steps, now it is time to focus on other key aspects like creating payment options that help you to increase better user engagement. When choosing a payment option, most retailers rely on third-party tools like Paypal, WorldPay, Stripe, and more. When you select these options, ensure that the data is encrypted before transfer. If you want to market your products in India, you can use Google Pay, Paytm, Razor pay, and more.

7. Set up Your Shipping Setting

With integrated shipping settings, you can offer a seamless shopping experience to your customers. It makes the whole delivery process easy, so you can focus on selling your products. Before adding shipping settings, consider your shipping offerings such as free deliveries, flat rates, variable fees, and more. You can also add refund and return policies to your shipping settings.

8. Test and Publish Your Online E-commerce Store

When you are almost finished building your e-commerce platform, now it is time to check your site thoroughly. Make sure every link and button on your site works seamlessly. Run a test to see whether your users can add products to the cart and complete their payments. After launching your e-commerce site online, you need to share this link on various social media platforms, guest post platforms and focus on email marketing also. If you have a budget, you can market your e-commerce site with paid advertisements on various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and more.

Conclusion

A good e-commerce platform will introduce you to new customers, more revenue, more user engagement, and increase brand awareness. Choosing the right e-commerce platform and having a strong as well as effective marketing plan will draw excellent results for your business. We hope this article on how to build an efficient e-commerce website will help you to understand it better. If you want to read more articles on trending topics, keep your eye on our blog page.