In today’s competitive marketplace, eCommerce website development is essential to the success of many business models. However, simply cobbling together a few code snippets and expecting customers to transfer money to your account is no longer enough.
Customers have high expectations regarding what they can get from a business website. Failing to meet these expectations can mean losing out on business. This is why it’s important to have the best possible eCommerce website that you can.
At the same time, your business needs to keep your eCommerce website development cost to a minimum. As such, you need eCommerce website development services that can meet your needs, provide customized solutions, and give you world-class customer support that will take your eCommerce web development to the next level.
Factors To Be Considered Before Starting Custom Ecommerce Website Development
Custom eCommerce website development can be a time-consuming, arduous and expensive process. You must explore all the factors that can constrain or expand your ability to properly create an eCommerce development solution.
Budget
What is your budget? What can you spend on your eCommerce website development? What sort of features do you need? Keep in mind that various factors determine your eCommerce website development cost. These costs include staff time, technology, hosting fees, server costs, and more.
Any eCommerce development agency should provide you with a breakdown of these services, how much they will cost, and what features you truly need. If an agency suggests adding certain tools or widgets, ask them why and if it is truly necessary: You can’t afford to waste money on eCommerce functions you don’t need.
Market Analysis
You’ll need a market analysis to determine what features you need, what payment methods you should incorporate, and how you will need to promote your eCommerce website. This information can be critical to saving money and spending on activities generating revenue.
Analyze Competitors
What is your competition doing? Where are they spending their money, and where may they outperform you? Once you know what the competition is, you can contract for eCommerce development services that will allow you to develop a better website.
Must-Have & Latest Features To Be Incorporated In An eCommerce Website
One of the biggest benefits of any eCommerce software development is that you can truly get creative. High-quality eCommerce website development can come with various creative, engaging, and intriguing features. These features can simplify the customer experience and ensure you gain more leads and sales.
However, there are many features that your custom eCommerce website development should absolutely consider.
User-Friendly Navigation
Simply put, your customers will move on if your website is not easy to navigate. With this in mind, you must design intuitive, consistent, streamlined, and mobile-friendly websites.
Site Search
eCommerce development has to make it easy for customers to find things. As such, you must build a search function that allows your customers to find the products and services they are looking for quickly.
Footer Navigation
Footer navigation refers to built-in functions at the bottom of your webpage. Most users intuitively know to scroll to the bottom of a website when looking for specific information or contact information. Footer information makes it easy for your customers to navigate your website. It also allows them to contact you if they have questions.
Product Videos
An eCommerce development agency should know how to help you create simple and short videos that can live on your website or YouTube. In addition, you should be able to link to this content and embed any videos on your website or social media.
Product Reviews
Product reviews are good for building the credibility of your website. eCommerce development services should either create a system that allows for built-in reviews or link to reviews on major websites like Google or Yelp. Doing so can also increase the SEO of your website.
FAQ For The Products & The Store
It may be worth considering adding a FAQs section for your business. A FAQ can help answer customers’ questions and search engine purposes, particularly if you work with an eCommerce development firm to determine what keywords will best attract customers to your website.
Order Tracking
Order tracking allows your customers to determine exactly where their order is and when it will arrive. These features often come standard with FedEx or UPS ordering, and your customers may expect to have access to this information.
Your business line may require custom eCommerce website development to add these features. However, this may increase the cost of your website. You need to know how this addition will impact your budget.
Mobile App
Mobile apps are necessary for many lines of business. Native apps can add features and functionality that are impossible on a website. An eCommerce development agency should give you a better idea of if such an App is truly necessary.
Chatbots
Chatbots can help answer questions and direct customer service inquiries. Many chatbots have become highly helpful and can improve the efficiency of your entire customer service team.
Local Store Information
If you run a physical location, your eCommerce development services should steer customers towards it. However, you may also need to add functionality that points customers to the nearest location, particularly if they use a mobile device.
Multilingual Support
Multilingual support should quickly, accurately, and automatically translate your website. Remember that this isn’t as simple as using a Google translate feature: Your website should be easily read in another language without the “broken” language often endemic with automatic translation services.
How Can You Calculate the Cost of An Ecommerce Website?
The best way to grasp how much an eCommerce website will cost you is by making an apples-to-apples comparison. This means you must examine the costs of different platforms and the tools and add-ons you will use.
Shopify/Shopify Plus
Shopify and Shopify Plus are two of the largest eCommerce platforms available. Shopify is the standard platform, while Shopify Plus is the enterprise-level platform capable of handling large-scale sales efforts. Features of Shopify include:
- Setting up stores.
- Integrating multiple payment options.
- Creating an all-in-one system that can completely manage the creation of your eCommerce website.
Magento
Magneto is an open-source eCommerce platform. Its functions are more customizable as an open-source platform than many other competing stores. You can use thousands of tools that add to the base program, enabling you to manage various functions.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is another program that allows for the creation of robust and inexpensive stores. There are multiple plans you can use that come with additional features. However, BigCommerce stores do not charge transaction fees, integrate with various other platforms, and come with multiple useful features.
Furthermore, you also need to break down the cost of eCommerce website development by the following major expenses:
- Hosting costs: You will have to pay a hosting fee for any platform, including an online store or website creation. These fees are usually charged every month, though you may be able to find a discount for paying yearly.
- Payment processing costs: Every business will need to pay for payment processing costs. This involves credit card processing fees, payment gateway programs, and related equipment.
- Design costs: Many stores come with set templates you can use. These templates are usually inexpensive, albeit boring. Users interested in creating a customized store can do so but may have to pay a developer for their services. This will likely result in an expensive, one-time fee. It also may mean you must pay ongoing costs to update the store regularly.
- Add-ons and extensions cost: Some stores will not need additional add-ons or extensions. However, others may. As such, you should examine what services you need and prepare a budget.
- Total costs of an eCommerce website: Websites have a variety of miscellaneous expenses that you may need to address. These include computer software, hosting fees, domain purchase fees, and more.
- Costs of growing your business: Here’s the good news – your business can quickly expand! As a result of growth, you may need to pay more to keep your eCommerce website up and running. The speed at which you’ll need to expand ultimately depends on the size and speed of that growth. You’ll need to budget with an eye on the future and ensure that you continue to have the resources to invest in additional features, website capacity, and more.
Hire An Ecommerce Website Development Agency
To be successful, eCommerce website development services must be comprehensive, flexible, and able to meet the demands of the modern customer. What works for a website today may need to be improved tomorrow. Therefore, your eCommerce development agency must have a robust understanding of B2B eCommerce web development, fully understand your needs, and be able to operate within your budget.
At Spiral Scout, we offer outstanding software and extraordinary experiences, with the resources to help you engage in eCommerce web development that suits any business’ needs. Contact us today for more information on how we can give you the custom eCommerce website development you need.
