eCommerce Website Development Guide

eCommerce Website Development at Intelvision

Intelvision considers eCommerce website development to be probably one of the most important investments for your online business development. If you check Nasdaq statistics, you may find the information that by 2040 eCommerce will account for about 95 percent of all online purchases. We do care about our customers and prospects. That is why we have created this eCommerce website development checklist for you. There are a number of things to take into account. But first things first, you should define your target audience and their needs. This very first step is essential in the whole development process. Furthermore, we are going to discuss all the needed steps to take on your way to the best eCommerce website ever!

What is eCommerce Website Development?

A lot of you may be wondering, “So, what is eСommerce website development?” Will we surprise you if we reveal that it isn’t only about development itself? This process is complex and includes a lot of stages and work.

Whatever your business goals, remember that your eCommerce project has to be based on the analysis regarding the product or service you are aiming to sell and the people you hope to sell them to.

This analysis also consists in understanding the type of business you conduct. That is what Intelvision consults our customers on.  You should definitely verify your eCommerce business model. Since there are several forms of eCommerce business models, however, the two main are business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C), knowing the distinction and which your eCommerce business falls into is very important. As we’ve mentioned before, it is crucial to be aware of your target audience. It may help not only to generate leads and boost sales but, first of all, develop that very eCommerce platform your business needs. Be creative, open-minded, and brave, and leave the rest for us!

Things to Consider in eCommerce Website Development (based on Swiss Scholar project)

Our dedicated team is here to provide you with significant tips on what to consider in the eCommerce development process. Have you already determined your goals? Have you defined the business model? Have you discovered what is needed for the best user experience? Even if you haven’t, Intelvision is there to help you out. These guidelines are based on the real eCommerce website case, the Swiss Scholar Project, developed by our team as an educational portal for students to assist them in their needs.

The Swiss Scholar project has an aim to provide people with access to courses, presentations, academic assignments, and the like. Our main purpose regarding that project was to upgrade and improve the old WordPress eCommerce website to make it meet customer’s and client’s requirements. So, that shows that eCommerce website development is not just the technology but rather the expertise of those working on and with it. Furthermore, we are going to guide you through the stages needed for the eCommerce website development process on the example of the Swiss Scholar project.

1. Select your tech provider

If you’re looking for a tech provider, we’ve got good news for you, as you’ve already found one! Finding your tech provider means that you are halfway through the process and with flying colors. It all comes down to rapport between you, healthy communication, and effective further cooperation. You may identify the right development team from the very beginning. Pay attention to questions they ask. Smart and qualified people always give the right questions.

When speaking about Intelvision’s experience developing the Swiss Scholar project, first of all, we examined and analyzed the old website, the market, and the industry in general and analyzed the behavior of leads. We had to make sure that the eCommerce solution lines up with target audience expectations. Such an analysis made it possible to make the website succeed! Intelvision also makes sure that our customers feel that we are always open for communication and ready to help and advise no matter the time or date.

2. Discuss technologies

Having outlined all the goals and objectives, we proceed to discuss technologies that are to be used in the eCommerce website development process. Intelvision has previously prepared information about eCommerce features and that WordPress is the number one choice for eCommerce websites. When developing the educational platform, Swiss Scholar project, we also used WordPress technology supported by other technologies, services, and tools like SMTP server (for sending emails), Figma (tool for designs), Trello (simplifies work for project managers), CDN (technology that optimizes page loading speed) and Cloudflare (service that improves website loading and protects from DDoS and caching).

All the technologies and tools you choose should reach the main goal – making the website mobile-friendly. Of course, our developers know that and use it in practice as responsive design and site, in general, make the user experience more satisfying and your business way more successful! Intelvision has profound knowledge in developing eCommerce and educational portals using WordPress, dot.net, CSS, JS, HTML, PHP, MySql, and others as for the development process. Moreover, we possess such a characteristic as eCommerce novelty anticipation. Having the expertise in technical and technological aspects, we do know the peculiarities of eCommerce to make your online project a success!

3. Define your feature list

When developing an eCommerce platform, a number of features have to be considered. The world is completely digital so you are to catch up with it. First of all, navigation. User-friendly navigation. That is a must nowadays. Intelvision is aware of it and implemented that feature into the Swiss Scholar project. Any educational portal won’t be in demand if students find it uncomfortable to navigate through it. Other features to choose from are security payment options, fraud detection integration, marketing tool integration, WishList, shopping cart, product reviews, etc. Having successfully completed the previous tips, you will find it easy to define your eCommerce features for your business.

Intelvision team makes sure your website has all the necessary features to ensure its visitors have the best experience and your business flourishes.

Our professionals have implemented the third-party integration into the Swiss Scholar project (e.g. payment gateways, email notifications integration, Google analytics integration, etc.), created the outstanding UX/UI design, added a shopping cart, developed user-friendly functionality to easily log up, integrated social media to the website, implemented analytics and statistics and created a live chat to make the communication possible at any time.

4. eCommerce SEO

How do you make your eCommerce website to be easily found on the Internet? Ask SEO specialists! Not surprisingly, 2021 has shown us that customers’ behavior has dramatically changed for good. Nevertheless, people have never stopped using Google! That is why Intelvision integrated Google analytics into the Swiss Scholar Project. The other ways to optimize your website are to define and include keywords and establish a content management system.

Keywords are crucial not only for the content of your eCommerce website but also for technical SEO. You for sure shouldn’t worry about that as our team always takes into account keywords in building architecture and URLs. That is what we’ve developed for the Swiss Scholar project attracting more and more students to use that educational portal.

5. eCommerce Design

There’s a proverb, “It’s not the clothes that count, but the things the clothes cover.”. Of course, the architecture of your eCommerce website is the most important thing. However, eCommerce website design development is crucial for increasing traction. Intelvision is proficient at developing a state-of-the-art design that can match target audience needs and generate leads. We’ve already mentioned it and will never stop reminding you how important it is to make your website responsive. There are so many different devices in the whole world, that you have to make sure anyone at any place can always go to your online store and become your customer.

Intelvision team has created such a UX and UI design for the Swiss Scholar project, focusing on their target prospects and influencing conversion rate. We always consult our customers on paying attention to the latest trends (e.g. multidirectional layouts, sticky navigation bar, chatbots, smarter popups, animation, original illustrations and many more).

6. eCommerce website development

The 21st century takes us into the whole new world of customers’ behavior. You can’t talk face-to-face, you can’t touch the product, you can’t try anything on. Anyway, there are a lot of advantages of this new world. You shouldn’t spend time commuting, to think what to dress before leaving for the meeting, no need to leave even your bed! That is why the software development team is an important player in this chain of new relationships on the market. The whole process of eCommerce website development starts way before the development itself. Intelvision team practices software development consulting first to make sure we understand all the challenges we are facing with. This process accounts for auditing, analyzing, and planning. Later on, you get to meet our dedicated software development team to provide you with the most amazing eCommerce solution. That is the approach we used for the development of our case project.

Every educational platform requires careful planning as there is tough competition within the industry. Nevertheless, we’ve managed to come up with the best solution to generate more traffic to the website, make it stand out, and bring higher profits for the business. Our team is sure that quality eCommerce website development is about planning the work, carrying it out, and conducting reports throughout the whole process and when the project is completed. All of these reflect the level of the team’s time management skills and meeting the deadlines, and you will be convinced that they may easily synchronize with other processes of your eCommerce website and effectively make use of the budget.

7. Test and release your eCommerce Website

Having successfully gone through the previous stages, we are approaching the final stage of your product before the launch. Like at school, check before handing in! Ecommerce testing is more complex than other types as it has to analyze it from all perspectives. Intelvision team recommends taking into consideration performance and security testing, usability and database testing, responsive UI testing, functional and A/B testing. One of the most important things is your homepage. It is like your business card that makes customers stay.

Our team checks on page loading speed (we do that using Google PageSpeed Insights tool and GT Metrix Speed Test tool), using color coding and fonts, work in different browsers, the scrolling intervals, and carousel, if links take to the right pages, login, and signup, as well as shopping cart buttons, are easy to find and function properly. Page speed optimization was one of the important things to consider when developing the Swiss Scholar project. Students do not have that patience to wait while your page loads, so this personal trait was an important trifle in this matter.

8. Market Your eCommerce Website

Online businesses should consider plenty of things when marketing their eCommerce website. Online customers are not easy to engage. According to statistics, almost 70% percent of shopping cart requests are given up before processing payment. So, what do you need to do to boost your online sales? Here comes eCommerce marketing. Firstly, leave this job for professionals. This art has a lot of underwater stones, so, your marketing vendors should have profound expertise in this matter. What are the major things to consider?

Social media is the number one to think of! For example, when developing the Swiss Scholar project, Intelvision team emphasized on this tool, as students are very active online. Such tools as social media, marketing, google analytics and SMS/email integration are crucial eCommerce website development features. Integrating these tools will make it easier for marketing specialists to promote your business online. For better benefits of marketing, we’d like to provide you with the information about the most effective channels of marketing. The most efficient one is content marketing, which is followed by marketing automation, big data and AI, and machine learning. And one more channel, considered to be the most effective, is social media marketing. The last-named increases your website exposure and traffic, generate leads and brings more and more returning customers, and, eventually, boosts sales.

How Much Does eCommerce Website Development Cost?

As you could see, eCommerce website development process is complex and multi-faceted. Starting with the preparation stage and ending up with marketing and promotion, no eCommerce business is possible without an advanced website and/or mobile application, both with a user-friendly design. Ecommerce website development cost is not that easy to be defined. Intelvision team always tells our customers about the custom design and features included. That is why it is rather impossible to estimate the exact price for an eCommerce website.

Since Intelvision team never creates the same eCommerce platform for different businesses, costs are never the same. Besides features included in your online website, the cost is determined by the complexity of programming, hosting costs, the number of integrations added, technologies, and approaches used. According to statistics in 2021, the average cost of developing an eCommerce site ranges from $5000 to $55000 (price per project), while maintaining it ranges from $4000 to $30000 per year. A professional and effective eCommerce platform is worth any penny.

Intelvision's expertise in eCommerce Website Development

Intelvision is an innovative company that values our customers and long-term relationships. The Swiss Scholar project case is the proof of such cooperation. As we have developed it from scratch to a successful educational portal. Nevertheless, we aren’t going to prove to you that we are proficient in this matter only basing on one project. For sure no! We’ve got experience developing other eCommerce platforms. We have got a dedicated software development team, which provides you with website development services, web application development services, a software development consulting, and, of course, software support and maintenance.

Among other technologies that we use are .Net, Node JS, React, Angular, Xamarin, and WordPress as the main technologies to use for eCommerce development. Our expertise in software services and technologies are combined with our profound knowledge of different industries, which are in need of an eCommerce website. The industries that we have cooperated with are education (as you could have already realized), logistics, healthcare, accounting, and fintech. We are always striving to develop ourselves thus developing the level of our services, correspondingly, the level of your business success.

Conclusion

Ecommerce website development is some type of art. You should focus on target audience needs, considering all the possible technologies to use in order to meet those needs. Have you ever wondered how much work stands behind every eCommerce website? Let’s have a quick overview of all stages. First, it is finding the right tech provider. Due to Intelvision policy, these are the people you are supposed to have long-run relationships with from an early stage of your business development.

Afterward, we start negotiating and consulting you on the best possible solutions for your business needs and expectations (it, of course, includes defining the target audience). Then we start discussing technologies and eCommerce website design development, the best features to include, tools to implement and services to include. All of these stages are lined up again with your target audience’s needs and future optimization and marketing. After launching the project, you appear online! Basically, you are everywhere and available for anyone anywhere in the world. If you’ve listened to our pieces of advice and followed this guide, your eCommerce business is to prosper and succeed in all terms. We promise to maintain and support your project along its way to success, help your business evolve and bring you the most desirable results!