How to Design an E-Commerce Website – Guide
The internet affects all areas of our lives. It has been used for socializing, entertainment, work and research since the early days of the internet. We also use it for shopping. Currently, 43% of shoppers are using 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 cannot afford to go offline when trying to reach customers. E-commerce sites allow businesses to enter new markets and gain resilience through sales when their physical stores need to close.
If you’re just starting a business, an e-commerce website can give you worldwide market and brand recognition before you even open a store. By launching a dedicated e-commerce site, you have the power to control every aspect of the customer experience, from branding to shipping and 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, offering a website optimized for selling your products.
Best way to build an ecommerce website
Choose a name and get your domain
Your domain is the web address for your e-commerce website. It’s what shoppers type into their browsers to visit your site. ..
There are a few things you can do to help improve your domain name and brand. First, use descriptive keywords in your business name and domain name. This will help customers know what you are selling and which keywords to use for SEO purposes. Additionally, make sure that your website is well-optimized for search engines. By doing this, you will be able to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) and receive more visitors from potential customers.
If you sell organic produce, you can try names like OrganicGroceryList.com or LocalOrganicProduce.com. If you sell custom pet collars, you can try names like CustomPetCollars.com or PetCoCustomCollars.com.
If you have some ideas for a company name, you can buy your domain through a domain registrar like GoDaddy, Bluehost, or Google Domains. Just visit one of these sites and enter your company name. It will let you know if this domain is available.
If you want to use a name that is not currently in use, these sites can help you find an alternate name. It’s a good idea to stick with a .com if possible, as it’s the most common and trusted use. However, if you are set to a specific name and the .com address is used, the .net and .co options are generally accepted as well. ..
Domain names typically cost between $12 and $25 per year, depending on the service and add-ons you choose. You may also find that whichever e-commerce platform you choose to build your e-commerce website will also include a free domain with your purchase. ..
Choose your e-commerce platform
Your ecommerce platform offers many options for choosing the right platform for your website. You can choose a free platform with features or an ecommerce platform that can support unlimited growth.
To define up payment, tax, shipping and marketing tools
If you’re using a BigCommerce or Shopify e-commerce platform, you’ll need to integrate with some external services to handle payment processing, tax calculations, shipping label printing, and marketing tools.
Payment processing and tax table setup
Shopify offers a wide range of payment integration options, including Square, PayPal, and Stripe. To enable payment processing using these solutions, just click on some buttons to set up your account and you are logged in.
If you’re looking to start an e-commerce business, it’s important to consider whether or not you want to integrate with a payment gateway and merchant account. Integrated payment services are the simplest and often most cost-effective options, but they may not be suitable for all businesses. If you have a limited budget or don’t have the time to research different options, then a plug-and-play payment service may be the best option for you.
After configuring your payment processor, you will set up the sales tax rates to be collected from buyers. All e-commerce websites support charging sales tax and allow you to apply tax to select or all items and orders. The sales tax rates you charge depend on your state and, in most cases, your overall sales volume.
shipping configuration
Shipping software can help you streamline your order fulfillment process by connecting orders to the shipping software. This way, you can select carriers and shipping methods, print labels, and automatically notify customers when their orders ship.
Shopify and WooCommerce offer integrated shipping, so the integration is already done for you and setup takes just a few minutes. Most other e-commerce platforms require you to connect a third-party solution such as ShipStation or ShippingEasy to print labels and trigger customer notifications. These integrations work well with most platforms, but can add monthly costs.
To collect shipping rates from your customers, you can use a shipping solution like FedEx or UPS. Most e-commerce sites allow you to add real-time fees, which is the actual cost of shipping each order. You can also set up flat rates based on order totals or offer free shipping on all or some orders.
Email marketing and social media setup
Ecommerce website platforms offer robust marketing tools that can be used to connect with customers and sell products. These tools include email lists, social media accounts, and product sales. ..
Other e-commerce platforms require more work to define up marketing features. For example, you can connect WooCommerce to top 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.
Different ecommerce platforms require different amounts of time and effort to build an effective website. If you’re using a dedicated ecommerce platform, you’ll likely spend more time building the site than if you use another platform. However, using a dedicated platform may also require more money up front. ..
Test and launch your e-commerce site
The final step in building your ecommerce website is processing some test orders. Each ecommerce platform handles testing differently; however, they all allow you to run some pre-launch test orders through the system. These orders will connect to your payment processor but will not charge your card. Once you’ve successfully submitted a few test orders or fixed any errors found while browsing your ecommerce site, you’re ready to launch your store. ..
Google search engines need time to index your new online store, so you can speed up the process by checking it in Google Search Console and uploading an XML sitemap. In the meantime, you can use social media and Google Adwords advertising to spread the word. ..
Final note
This guide will teach you how to design an e-commerce website. If you have any questions about this article, please don’t hesitate to ask us. Additionally, please share your love by sharing this article with your friends.
