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The Internet affects all areas of our lives. We use it to socialize, entertain, work and research. We also use it for shopping. There is now a generation of adults who only know a world where the internet exists, and as they and generations to come spend more, e-commerce will continue to grow. Today, 43% of shoppers use the internet and social media to research products before making a purchase, and by 2024 US e-commerce revenue will be worth $476 billion. Retailers don’t have the luxury of being offline when trying to reach customers. E-commerce websites allow businesses to enter new markets and gain resilience through sales when their physical stores have to close.
If you’re just starting a business, an eCommerce website can give you a worldwide market and brand recognition before you even open a store. When you launch a dedicated eCommerce site, you have the power to control every aspect of your customer experience, from branding to shipping to customer service. You can choose to build it yourself or hire a developer, but either way, knowing the process can help you make informed decisions, giving you an optimized website to sell your products.
The best way to build an eCommerce website
Choose a name and get your domain
If you’re new to creating an eCommerce website, your domain, also called a URL, is your web address. This is the “home” of your online e-commerce site and is what shoppers type into their browser bar to visit your site.
Choosing a good domain name is important for both your brand and overall success. If possible, choose a domain and business name that is closely related to what you are selling. By using descriptive keywords or key phrases in your business and domain name, your customers will know what you are selling in advance and help you rank well in search engines, which is vital to your SEO strategy. business.
For example, if you specialize in organic honey, you can search for names that include “organic honey,” such as KatiesBeesOrganicHoney.com. Or, if you sell custom pet collars, you can try CocosCustomCollars.com. If you’re running a niche business, finding a keyword-based name for your eCommerce site is pretty easy.
If you have some ideas for a name, you can buy your domain through a domain registration service like GoDaddy, Bluehost, or Google Domains. Simply visit one of these websites and enter your business name. It will tell you if this domain is available.
If your name is already in use, these websites will show you options like .net or .co or an alternate name. It’s a good idea to stick with a .com if possible, as it’s the most common and trusted usage. However, if configured with a specific name and the .com address is used, the .net and .co options are generally accepted as well.
Your domain name will typically cost between $12 and $25 per year, depending on the service and add-ons you choose, for example B. Domain Privacy. You may also find that whatever eCommerce platform you choose to build your eCommerce website will also include a free domain with your purchase, which brings us to our next point.
Choose your eCommerce platform
Your eCommerce platform is where your site “lives” online, and you have many options to choose from. There are free eCommerce platforms with limited features and almost free eCommerce stores built on WordPress. You can add eCommerce features to popular website builders or go for a dedicated eCommerce platform that can support unlimited growth.
Set up payment, tax, shipping and marketing tools
How you handle these tasks when building your eCommerce website will depend on your eCommerce platform. All-in-one solutions like BigCommerce and Shopify come complete with integrated payment processing, tax calculation, shipping label printing, and marketing tools. Most of the others require the integration of some external services to handle these tasks.
Payment processing and tax table setup
All of the eCommerce website platforms covered above offer plug-and-play integration with top payment services like Square, PayPal, and Stripe. Shopify even has its own payment solution, Shopify Payments. To enable payment processing with these solutions, just click a few buttons, set up your account, and you’re connected.
Most eCommerce platforms also allow you to connect your own payment gateway and merchant account. However, integrated and plug-and-play payment services are the simplest and often the cheapest options for startups.
After setting up your payment processor, you’ll set up the sales tax rates that buyers will be charged. All eCommerce website platforms support sales tax collection and allow you to apply taxes to select or all items and orders. The sales tax rates you charge depend on your state and, in most cases, your total sales volume.
Shipping Settings
You can, and should, integrate shipping software with your eCommerce platform to streamline the order fulfillment process. Integrated shipping seamlessly connects orders with shipping software so you can select carriers and shipping methods, print labels, and automatically notify customers when their orders ship.
BigCommerce, Shopify, and WooCommerce all offer built-in shipping, so the integration is out of the box and setup takes just a few minutes. Most other eCommerce platforms require you to connect a third-party solution like ShipStation or ShippingEasy to print labels and trigger customer notifications. These integrations work well with most platforms, but may add monthly costs.
Once your shipping solution is set up, you can create shipping rates to collect shipping fees from your customers. Most e-commerce websites allow you to add real-time rates, which is the actual cost of shipping each order. Or, you can set up flat rates based on order totals or offer free shipping on all or select orders.
Email marketing and social media setup
Just like checkout and shipping, some eCommerce website platforms offer robust integrated marketing tools. All-in-one solutions BigCommerce and Shopify lead the pack with comprehensive marketing toolkits. You can easily create and use email lists to connect with customers, plus sell products and send promotions through your social media accounts in just a few clicks.
Other eCommerce platforms require a bit more work to set up marketing features. For example, you can connect WooCommerce to major email marketing services like MailChimp using free plugins. However, you need paid plugins to connect your products directly to social media accounts for social commerce.
Clearly, the time spent on this step depends on the ecommerce platform you choose. Building an eCommerce website with all the marketing bells and whistles is easy with dedicated eCommerce platforms. You will spend more time, effort, and perhaps money if you use other platforms.
Test and launch your eCommerce website
The final step in building your eCommerce website begins with processing a few test orders. Each eCommerce platform handles testing differently; However, all of them allow you to run some pre-launch test orders through the system. These orders will be connected to your payment processor but your card will not be charged. Once you’ve successfully submitted a few test orders, or fixed any bugs you encountered while browsing your eCommerce site, you’re ready to launch your store.
Of course, launching your eCommerce website doesn’t mean instant sales. Search engines need time to find and index your new online store. You can speed this up by verifying your new eCommerce store in Google Search Console and uploading an XML sitemap that eCommerce platforms provide for this purpose. In the meantime, you can also use social media and Google Adwords advertising to get the word out once your online store is live.
Final words: How to Design an E-Commerce Website
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