Step-by-Step Guide to Ecommerce Development
The online space is vibrant and diverse, with all kinds of resources you can find depending on your search goal and intentions. Entertaining content, news portals, informational blogs, educational courses, and online shops, just to name a few – that’s all present online. And each resource has to follow its specific rules of design; otherwise, you can lose the essential share of your target audience.
Now, let’s suppose you’re planning a commercial project. How does ecommerce development differ from other websites? What elements should top-quality ecommerce development include? Here is a brief guide to enhance your understanding of different website models.
What Is Ecommerce Development?
When we talk about ecommerce development, we mostly mean a client-focused, interactive website ensuring a great UX and convenience of shopping. Such websites should be simple and intuitive in navigation to deliver great business results. Thus, the themes and design solutions used for ecommerce platforms are distinct from those required for informational or entertainment resources.
How to Design a High-Impact Ecommerce Resource?
So, how does ecommerce development take place and what stages do such projects involve? Here is a 7-step algorithm the designers of Beluga Lab follow when working on ecommerce projects.
#1 Customer/Product Research
To build a customer-oriented website that your users will love, you need to know the target audience. Tailor the website’s design to customers and tweak it to suit the overall product category/concept, and here you go with a successful e-store.
#2 Platform Choice
Next, you need to discuss the preferred platform for your website with designers. It may be Magento, Shopify, or WooCommerce – the key factors in the platform’s choice should be the programmer’s tech stack, your project type, your deadline, and your budget.
#3 Hosting Selection
Your website has to be stored somewhere in the digital space, so the choice of hosting is also essential. When picking the hosting provider, pay attention to the criteria of speed, uptime, and support quality. It’s also vital to factor in the scalability options; even if you’re a small startup today, you might need way more space tomorrow.
#4 Development
This step is the lengthiest as it includes the actual programming and design of your project – the ecommerce development phase as such. So, be patient and wait until the whole functionality will be ready, including the back-end architecture and the front-end design.
#5 QA Testing
Any website needs to be tested before launch, so QA testing is a vital stage ensuring that your e-store is functional, bug-free, and able to host hundreds of visitors at the same time.
#6 Pre-Launch Marketing
Nobody will know about your project if you don’t tell the world about it. So, make sure to develop a thorough marketing campaign to have thousands of excited users waiting for the launch.
#7 Post-Launch Maintenance
Ecommerce development doesn’t end with the website’s launch. For your resource to function well and offer better experiences to loyal users day by day, you need to conduct regular maintenance and upgrades. Get ready for this lifetime process!