eCommerce Website Development Company

How and Where Did eCommerce Begin?

We know the World Wide Web is just a little over a couple of decades old, and so is eCommerce. However, eCommerce was not meant for a purpose as we know it today. Back in the 90s, the term eCommerce was used to convey the electronic execution of commercial transactions.

The leading technologies used at the time were EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer). Which provided platforms for people to conduct business information exchange along with transactional activities.

Well, we cannot say eCommerce witnessed an instant uproar and escalated immediately in the market. But within a decade, it had somewhat made its stance. According to statistics, by 2007, eCommerce had gained a 3.7% share in total sales worldwide.

The reasons for this delay are manifold. Firstly, it took long for the internet to make an impression among the general public, the same audience the eCommerce websites would need to target. And the late advent of security protocols like HTTP then assured uninterrupted internet connections and speed.

By the second millennium, a handful of US companies gave the world its new definition of eCommerce – the process of selling and purchasing goods online through a secure and speedy medium, with the help of electronic payment modules. Also, many eCommerce development companies came up to help a variety of small and big businesses develop their eCommerce sites to become part of this new digital era.

Two of the first eCommerce websites to come up across the globe were Safeway and Albertsons. Soon enough, the B2B or the Business-to-Business model took shape. And had around 700 billion USD to its transaction. A massive escalation in just a few years, don’t you think?

The rest is not unknown to us today. We live in a world where the owner of an eCommerce website has stayed in the numero uno position of the world’s richest people.

Why do you think eCommerce was able to gather such frenzy about itself in such a short time? What makes it stand apart and much ahead of conventional brick-and-mortar stores? How you can get into the eCommerce business and launch your sites with the help of an eCommerce website development company?

Perhaps before we navigate into the discussion of the how’s and the what’s of setting up an eCommerce store, it is essential, to begin with, the why’s.

Why Should you Set up an eCommerce Website?

No wonder every entrepreneur, every business owner, or everyone who wishes to make huge money is turning to the internet, and especially to eCommerce.

Here, the idea is to sell one’s products and services online to their audience. And expects to achieve many more benefits with the help of reliable eCommerce website development services than they would through a brick-and-mortar store.

The figures say it all, don’t they? According to Statista reports, e-commerce sales amounted to approx USD 4.9 Trillian in 2021. And is expected to grow over 50% in the coming five years!

Besides, e-commerce has managed to completely transform the way businesses function these days. Including sales and finances, along with the organizational structure, the increased importance of creativity in advertisements, and the customer relationship interface.

If you want to be assured of all the benefits opening up an eCommerce store could have for you, get in touch with a top eCommerce development company India from the internet.

Major Benefits of eCommerce Storefront

No More Geographical Limitations

For someone who lives in a remote part of the country and wishes to make his store reputable, it would be difficult to reach beyond the borders of the town itself.

This notion is entirely shattered by eCommerce, which assures that geographical limitations play no role when it comes to buying or selling. And the option of outsourcing to create your sites to an experienced eCommerce development agency removed any technological barriers for the businesses.

This means not just a massive benefit for the customer who can avail of their favorite product or service sitting in the comfort of his living room. But also a huge win for a store owner. As they can now have their products visible or sold to customers from any corner of the world.

Search Engine Optimization for Better Visibility

Unlike brick-and-mortar stores, where it would be difficult to estimate who is looking for what, eCommerce provides you the chance to do just that.

With the help of the internet, pandora’s box of possibilities, the information regarding which product customers are looking for, where, and when is made achievable. This is called search engine optimization.

As customers look for products online, it is normal for them to type in just a few words commonly referred to as ‘keywords’ by search engines. So you can easily avail of a list of these usual keywords that the customers use when looking for certain products. And amalgamate these keywords with your product description your eCommerce platform and voila! Taking care of all these nitty-gritty of technical aspects, a proficient eCommerce web development company can help you with all the set-up of your e-commerce site that runs successfully.

Every time a customer looks up these keywords, your product, as well as your e-commerce website, pops up as one of the top results that they are more likely to visit.

Perhaps this game of ‘I-know-what-you-are-looking-for-and-I-have-it’ is what makes eCommerce stand a class apart from the traditional store.

More Convenience for Customers

Besides saving your customers the need to walk or drive up to the store to get the product of their choice, you are also providing them with many other benefits. Like saving any travel expenses, giving more choices to explore their desired products, getting more discounts on prices, easy availability with home delivery, and convenient payment options too.

You can compile all these and more in your e-store with the help of eCommerce app development services to attract more customers to your site and apps. After understanding the user behavior, they load your sites with the best of the features for more customer convenience. For most of the working class, who barely have time to spend on themselves, this is a huge relief.

This is also why they don’t mind paying a little extra for the delivery charges, considering your prices are reasonable or maybe even laden with attractive discounts!

More Options and Comparisons

What the traditional store might also lack is the availability of an adequate number of options to choose from and compare.

What if the customer also wishes to know if the shampoo from one brand is better priced than the other? Or what if they want to know how many brands provide ripped denim and which one looks best?

One can see that the number of such options available in the traditional store is nowhere in comparison to its online counterpart, which is a storehouse of unlimited information.

With the help of a custom eCommerce development company, you can ensure that your customer finds more satisfaction, better options, and easier comparison on your eCommerce website and would resort to the same for shopping.

Ability to Create Targeted Channels

The traditional store doesn’t have the option of creating a targeted channel successfully. It is natural for us to focus our attention on things we hold particular value for.

In the case of wishes to open a store for specific products, it can be challenging to taste success in the conventional setup.

With an eCommerce development company, you have the option of making more of this selective attention by customers to your site for the number of customers viewing your portal increases manifold.

Curated products promoted with the help of targeted advertisements and newsletters work wonders not just for the customer but also for your store.

No Need to Bother with Opening or Closing

Perhaps one of the best reasons to switch online for your store is the all-time availability and access. As e-commerce provides you the benefit of not worrying at all about when to open and when to close your store. Imagine having a store that sells goods and services 24 x 7!

This allows customers with different time schedules and even sitting in different time zones to access your virtual store. And add items to their shopping cart as per their convenience.

Besides, the benefits of automation and usage of the internet-enabled by your eCommerce web development agency assure that the process is conducted smoothly and efficiently.

Does the eCommerce Sector Matter?

In an age where digitization has revolutionized the way we dress, eat, relax, and work, the question of the relevance and importance of the eCommerce sector is out-of-place. Instead of that, many eCommerce development companies have come up to transform innovative ideas into thriving e-commerce businesses.

Yet, whether you are a newbie to the world of business or an investor who is looking forward to switching online, it is essential to grasp the position, demand, and outcome of this venture.

Reasons Why the eCommerce Sector Matters

The Future Growth of eCommerce

The growth of eCommerce looks ever-expanding with the more usage of technology and innovative trends in online shopping and transactions. Many businesses are turning to e-commerce platforms with the help of eCommerce development companies leading to a considerable increase in economic growth.

If you are someone who feels more convinced with numbers, this should come across as a relief: 2021 saw a 14% of massive YoY growth in the online commerce industry, which is an impressive value.

eCommerce is a Proven Way to Maintain Loyal Customers

Surveys have shown that people are likely to use the website repeatedly in the future as well if they felt considerably satisfied with the order or delivery service. So you can partner with an eCommerce app development company to build e-stores that can retain customers for your brand loyalty.

Higher Conversion Rates with Online Websites

Just like window shopping, the internet provides the customer with the opportunity of browsing and look up products that they are interested in.

With the latter, however, the user-friendly features, ease of navigation, and availability imbued by your eCommerce web design company ensure the rate of conversion into the product being purchased are higher.

The reasons are many – frequent price drops visible or even notified to the customer, detailed descriptions of products, and so on.

Overheads with eCommerce are Much Less

The number and types of overhead charges that come into play when one is handling a conventional store are many. This might include shop rentals, utility and maintenance bills, expenses on security measures, and maintaining a large staff team. However, none of these apply to an eCommerce store for a business holder.

In an age where people have begun to realize the prowess of eCommerce and digital marketing, opening an eCommerce website for your products with the help of an experienced eCommerce website development agency is sure to lend you a competitive edge.

We hope you have now gained clarity about the why’s of opening an eCommerce website and whether the process fits your vision perfectly.

So now comes the point where you turn to this detailed guide to help you get customized eCommerce development services from the best eCommerce website development company. Also, it will walk you through the e-commerce-related aspects to benefit your business giving you a competitive edge in the market.

What is in the Guide for you?

• Do you want to launch an eCommerce website for your goods and services from scratch?
• Do you already own an eCommerce company, which is not doing expectedly well in terms of sales and online performance?
• Do you already own a virtual store, but need to revamp it in terms of size, popularity, or refinement?

If your answers to any of the above are ‘Yes,’ then you have chosen the right eCommerce development agency for all your uncertainties about setting up an eCommerce store.

No wonder, everyone who starts wishes to become another household name like Amazon or Flipkart. For starters, however, a much simpler, down-to-earth example would be enough to inspire.

Monica, from Brooklyn, New York, loved to doodle in her free time or even during advertisement meetings during her day job. Doodling provided her with a way of amusing herself. After she became a mother and had more time to herself, she thought of converting this love for doodling into a business idea.

She went on to add more to her world of doodled characters and made sure she provides each with a backstory, suitable music, and so on. Also, she began testing how the designs would look on physical products, like mugs, home décor, and kid’s apparel.

Further, Monica went on to launch her products and services using Shopify, while integrating the services of Printify and Printful with her store. However, she was quick to realize that launching an eCommerce store from scratch and translating it into a success is not a cakewalk.

So she went on to gather help from different sources. Like approaching an SEO expert & eCommerce development firms for lending direction and so on. Clearly, according to her, the beginning of the process was the toughest part.

Hence, we are trying to deliver to you here is a comprehensive guide that spans everything you need to know about setting up your eCommerce store from scratch. So as the top eCommerce website development company, we make sure the process does feel like a cakewalk for you with our well-planned guide for all your needs, be it SEO, or handling figures and advertisements. Also, it lends you all the tips and hacks for turning it into a success.

To help you get through this humongous task of launching an e-commerce site for your business, getting professional help will save you time, money, and efforts with assured success. Partnering with a reliable eCommerce development company will also prepare your site for futuristic demands and trends lending your business a cutting-edge innovation.

Apart from this, there are numerous benefits of getting eCommerce app development services. Here are some that will help you delve deeper into its usefulness for every type of business.

Benefits of Employing an eCommerce Development Company

Highly Customized Website

Most small businesses use the standard themes available in the market, which primarily hinders their success. However, partnering with a renowned eCommerce web development agency can help you build a unique website for your unique business. Having a customized eCommerce website is the need of the hour setting you distinct among your users.

Also, a customized website goes a long way in building your brand and making an impact in the market. With custom eCommerce website development services you can develop a website consisting of unique features that are important to run your business smoothly with high performance. Moreover, you can add features for a personalized experience that makes it easy for your users to navigate through the website and place an order with your company. Hence, getting a highly customized website will be beneficial to your business making you future-ready.

Better User Experience

An eCommerce website development company provides you with unique designs to attract more customers. And can even implement them for your store. With expert UI/UX designers and market researchers by your side, they can help you improve your store’s user experience significantly.

Today, there are thousands of online retailers, but only a few of them lead the market. Placing items in the right place and making navigation easy are just some parts of the user experience. And if you look closely, you will see that lot of it is because of the UI/UX of their sites. So you should work with your eCommerce web development firm to attain the full benefits of creating a memorable user experience by crafting immersive front-ends.

If the customers have a good time at your site, they will likely do business with you. And providing a good customer experience is integral to growing your eCommerce business.

Scalable

Scalability is one of the biggest benefits of eCommerce stores and that can be lent to your site when developed by a leading eCommerce web development company. Because best companies think beforehand to keep in mind your future growth and projected needs of scaling and build a platform that can be scaled infinitely.

In your dire needs, you can use plug-n-play eCommerce stores and software that claim to be scalable, but the reality is different. As you build a custom eCommerce store, you can choose from every type of tech stack, deployment options, and other things to help your site scale as needed. Choosing the right things and finding the perfect combination can help you build the best and most scalable eCommerce store.

Responsive & Highly Available

eCommerce web development services get you web apps and sites that are highly responsive and available for sustaining your users’ loyalty. As most users shop from mobile phones. Hence, it is important to have responsive websites that work the same on smaller devices. And provide a great user experience to customers who visit the store from a smaller device.

Your company will keep responsiveness in mind and craft a unique application for you. Such applications will work the same across all devices and help your users to complete their ordering and browsing process seamlessly.

Being highly available means that your website is always up and running, and this is possible only with a good eCommerce development agency.

Guaranteed Delivery

To stay in the trend, a timely website launch is crucial and for that on-time delivery is appreciated. Some companies take their own time to build the e-store with features & testing which is not suitable. However, deliveries are guaranteed when working with a good eCommerce development company due to their professional approach. If you’ve done enough research and hired the best company in the region, you should be assured of the delivery timelines.

Such companies work on high ethics, and they know how vital a good eCommerce website is for your business. So they’ll do everything in a planned manner to manage your deliveries. Whether you change your requirements or add a few more features to the project, the deliveries will come as expected, and you can launch your website on the defined date.

Highly Experienced Developers

The best eCommerce website development company will have highly experienced, pre-vetted developers to lend. No matter what tech stack you choose to base your store on, there will always be a team of developers with the company that can implement your idea. Highly experienced developers may be a little expensive, but the results they generate are commendable. So you can depend on the outcomes from their domain expertise and comprehensive eCommerce app development services.

Security

Security is the primary concern for every eCommerce store. As you handle large amounts of client data, including personally identifiable information, you need to make the product robust and secure. And this can be achieved by working with the best company, as they have more experience in building and deploying highly secured eCommerce applications.

By knowing the benefits of working with an eCommerce development company, you must not miss the opportunity of getting one on board for your business. But stop; there are some things you need to consider and take care of before you do so. As you might not know them if you are new to this thing, and that’s why we’ve listed down the top things you should know.

Budget

As you are selecting a company for your project development, the budget is an important part. Besides, there are eCommerce development companies that charge heavily for everything, while there are some that also provide cost-efficient services.

Before beginning the selection, you must set a budget for your project and stick to it. No matter how many benefits the company shows, you should not exceed your budget. Going over the budget is only acceptable in special cases when the company is providing you with unique eCommerce app development services or some added benefits that are not available with any other company.

Setting a budget will help you filter out companies that charge heavily. And you can focus on the companies that fix in your bracket. Moreover, it will also make your decision easier by limiting your choices.

Expertise Level

Expertise level plays a vital role in the outcome of your eCommerce store. Hence, while selecting a company, you should give ample consideration to the eCommerce development firm’s tech expertise level and experience in the industry.

A company that has worked on similar projects in the past can easily understand your niche & build a project for you. At the same time, a company that is entirely new to your type of project, may not be able to deliver a great great product as expected. Keep in mind that experience helps you build better products. That’s why it should be considered thoroughly when selecting a company.

Technology

Every eCommerce web development company masters different technology stacks. However, few industry leaders offer a wide range of tech stack services to their clients. So as you are looking for a company to build your customized store, give due consideration to the mastered tech stack of the company.

For instance, you may want to develop a WordPress-based eCommerce store for your business. But the company you are interested in might excel in Shopify development. In such cases, though Shopify might prove a better choice in the long run, it will require you to restructure your budgets and also replan the entire project and features.

Due to this, whenever you are researching for companies to partner with, understand the technologies they work with. And only then approach them for discussion to avail of any eCommerce web development services. Because this will help you save time and make decisions easier.

Past Clients

The way how a company has worked with past clients is a true reflection of its working styles and ethics. That’s why you should consider reviewing their past clients and projects.

As you connect with the past clients of your potential eCommerce website development agency, try to talk to them and get reviews on their working styles, pricing structures, and things to keep in mind while working with them. If you get many negative reviews about the company, it is time to restart your search and look for a better company.

Also, have a look at their past projects. And even try using them to get the firsthand experience as a user. If you like what you see or hear and like moving around the website developed by them, then they are a good choice. So you can rely on the company to build a bespoke storefront for your online store.

Development Methodology

Development methods determine the delivery timelines and frequency of their eCommerce website development services. Today there are many development methods like Agile and Scrum that allow companies to ship custom software faster. If a company uses an old development method, it’s not the best choice.

Looking for companies that are ready to change their development methods when needed for a project will help you accommodate changes better. Moreover, such companies are flexible, innovative, and can help you build a great product in less time.

Customization

Customizing the product is another parameter that you must consider when selecting a company. If your prospective eCommerce development agency cannot help you in creating a customized and unique eCommerce application, then there’s no meaning in recruiting them. If you wish then there are many ready-to-use templates and plugins that you can integrate and create a normal-looking eCommerce store. But such e-stores won’t prove sufficient if you want to grow rapidly with your distinguished business identity. Thus, customization is the only thing you need.

So while selecting a company, ask about the level of customization they can do, and choose the ones that can create an eye-catching website for your business model.

Selecting the right eCommerce web development company is hard, but it’s not impossible. With the proper steps, you can find the best company that can help you build a bespoke application. Here is the path you can take to select the right company.

Checking Company’s Profile

One of the most important things to do to select the right custom eCommerce development company is to check their profile thoroughly with experience, tech expertise, types of projects, client reviews, and services provided by them. With the help of the internet, you can verify the company profile on sites like LinkedIn, GitHub, GlassDoor, Clutch, etc.

Also, there are many unbiased review platforms where you can look for the company’s reviews from past people who have worked with them. Moreover, if you are already in discussion with a company, you should consider asking about past clients and their projects. If they freely provide this information, be assured that you are working with a transparent and good company. On the other side, if they are hesitant to provide referrals and links to their earlier projects, there is something they want to hide. And you should stay away from such companies.

Assessing Team Members

While you select the best eCommerce website development company, you need to compile the best developers’ team from them. It’s the team behind your project that determines its quality outcome and delivery. But the only way to hire the best team is by assessing the team members individually.

You should arrange coding and technical tests to assess the problem-solving and technical skills of the concerned members. Also, you can arrange interviews where you can determine their analytical skills by giving them case studies and puzzles.

If you hire after assessing the team members thoroughly, you will be sure of what talent is working on the success of your project.

Considering Costs

To select the right sort of eCommerce web development services, you will surely need to consider the costs of working with them. As many companies charge unreasonably high amounts from foreign clients, you should avoid such companies.

However, there are many costs involved in the development of eCommerce projects like the cost of website, domain, servers, developers, hardware, etc. All these costs need to be carefully examined as they can pile up quickly. So, as you are choosing an eCommerce development company, always try to go with the option that minimizes your project development costs while maintaining high standards.

Post-deployment Support

No software is ever developed with 100% correct features and code. And there can always be something that breaks in a production environment or after the project is out on the market. Given such possibilities, you should work with an eCommerce website development company that provides post-deployment support.

Become aware that, these kinds of services are provided by all companies. But the majority of them charge extra and that increases your project’s costs. Always select a company that offers some sort of post-deployment support for free when you develop custom eCommerce software with them.

After considering these important aspects, we are well supported to begin the adventure of our e-commerce site. So, it is time we shift our focus to the first step of launching an eCommerce store from scratch –

investing time in THE IDEA.

It is not always easy to be certain about your e-commerce business, what you are going to sell, what your website is going to look like, or who you want to target with your products.

Sometimes, just the notion of being able to derive success from an eCommerce website is all one has.

In this chapter, our motive is to help you understand better the process of generating product ideas, or picking what products to sell out of the vast pool of options for your website as part of the first step of your custom eCommerce development services.

The idea is to help you get into the process of brainstorming and filtering only the best ideas for your vision.

Generating Product Ideas

Coming up with the best product for your business is, no doubt, a tricky business. Even picking out from the vast pool of options that exist is not that easy. Because all of them are successful in their niche, it is difficult to assess which would be best suitable for your business.

However, there are several strategies you could adopt to translate your scattered thoughts into a decent business idea. And being a top eCommerce development company, we can convert them into a thriving online presence for you. Various methods can help you generate a brilliant product idea for your business, a few of which we would like to list for you.

Solving a Customer Issue

Perhaps one of the best ways to land on a successful idea for your eCommerce website would be to identify and cater to real issues faced by customers around you. Further, you can solve these customer needs with the technical expertise of a top eCommerce development company gotten to build your web apps and sites.

Such customer pain points in some existing services or products around, or some areas that haven’t been catered to yet, can make for excellent ideas for an eCommerce website.

So you could begin by venturing out into the real market & interact with potential customers. This could happen either via a short survey you could take online, or even through observations and records you might register in day-to-day life.

A keen eye and the ability to grasp pain points are all you need to get started.

Opting for your Passion or Niche

Quite often, it is usually a passion or drive that makes us want to venture out into the world of setting up a business. However, the idea might not be definitive and is usually just a vague conglomerate of thoughts. Yet it could be one of the directions you could drive your website towards.

There must be some ideas you love pondering over, some hobbies you know you can shape to success and some fields of interest that could make you love your work. Begin by sitting down and jot down all these random ideas, hobbies, passions, or exciting things that come to your mind.

You will have already created a pool of ideas to dive deep into. And spark it into a business idea with an eCommerce app development company.

Going Back to your Personal and Professional Experiences

As a top eCommerce website development company, we admit that breaking into the world of eCommerce has come to us for a reason – be it personal or professional.

Most of us are either frustrated with our routine jobs or have been inspired by someone’s success in the venture. Even on the personal front, some incidents that could have sparked the urge for independence within us could be the reason we want to try our hands at online commerce. Whatever the reason might be, the idea is to use it to shape it into a productive step toward the business itself.

Perhaps working in a particular industry or dealing in certain services previously has lent you an insight into the ups and downs of the same? Or do you know better the pain points of customers your company could cater to? Or feel you are equipped with sufficient technical knowledge to lend new meaning to some conventional practices?

This is one sure-shot way you could convert your own experience and skills into a successful business venture. Being the best eCommerce development company, we can help you identify some potent abstract ideas and bring them to reality for your e-commerce sites.

Capturing the Future Trends of Mobile Apps

Mobile app development has become very popular and companies that are dealing with this have a bright future. Many new trends are coming in this field that aids eCommerce development services to enhance the e-commerce platforms for the betterment of the users and the business. And some have been discussed here.

Regular browsing, a little research on the current demands, and the way these trends are catering to people’s needs can help you capitalize on them quite early. As the benefits of this step are magnanimous for a business.

Not only does this provide you a lead in the market in terms of position and audience. But also provides you the opportunity of availing much better and suitable traffic for your products.

Once you have successfully assessed the trends in the market, be there as many as possible in different or allied fields. And you can quickly proceed to the next step of filtering out the more suitable options for your business venture.

So, how can you keep an eye on the trends in the e-world? Well, as your eCommerce development company, we have it all listed for you.

Google Trends – For those of us who are not aware of this handy application, Google Trends can be used to browse at a glance across multiple hot topics that are trending in the world. All you need to do is spend some time on Google Trends and keep taking notes whenever some topic or item sparks your interest.

Reddit – If you wish to know what the internet is talking about today, Reddit is the place for you. Colloquially called the ‘front page of the internet,’ it provides you with the most exciting and sought-after headlines daily. A few days or weeks of research can lend you an idea about what is hot, and you can pick out a few best options according to your taste.

Trend Hunter – The thing with Trend Hunter is that it works like a community that is always hunting for the latest trends and the newest information related to particular topics. Their job is to identify and analyze from consumer activities what is trending in what field at a given time. Additionally, it works with Artificial Intelligence support along with human teams. Not only do they provide you with accurate customer insights, but also a platform that already feeds you with multiple ideas and opportunities.

Social Media Sites – Being an experienced eCommerce development agency, we understand the importance and influence of social media very well. If you are okay with not being spoon-fed by websites and wish to spend time analyzing and studying the market trends yourself, the best resort would be any popular social media platform. With the option of using hashtags for joining discussions and sharing opinions on these sites, people are unknowingly declaring their preferences.

This is in complete harmony with your aim to identify the best ideas to cater to the voices of these very people. So you could successfully convert them into a target audience, and later into prospective buyers.

Analyzing Customer Reviews on Other Shopping Sites

They say, ‘we learn better from others’ mistakes.’ With too many eCommerce websites on the internet today, one cannot deny that these websites also offer the opportunity of learning as well.

As your digital partner and a reliable eCommerce development agency, we’d like you to explore other sites and apps to understand the existing online scenario better.

You can analyze through a brief study from these websites. About what kinds of products they offer and what is the customer response to these goods and services. You must go through positive as well as negative feedback to be able to grasp the all-around merits and demerits of launching a similar website.

Besides, there can be so much other information you can derive from these websites and their ideas. Also, you can quickly assess & target a specific audience with your products or whether you would like to cater to large masses – something for everyone.

All these assessments can go a long way in helping you to shape your ideas for your virtual store.

Keyword Search for the Best Targets

Often, you must have come across the terminology of Search Engine Optimization. But did you know that this is something that can prove to be great even for your eCommerce website? Your eCommerce store development company leverages the keywords to rank your site online among many other websites.

The idea is to do a little research on frequently used keywords by customers when they are looking for products. Some of the keywords can tell you precisely what kind of tags people add to products they are looking for, how many hits these keywords get in a month, or even how often people tend to look up a particular product.

With a little more hunt into the keyword game, you could begin to assess what kind of products are sought after. Whether there is a particular surge in queries related to particular products based on the time of the day, week, or even month.

All these stats can help you in jotting down ideas, of what works and what does not when it comes to picking products for an online store.

Extensive Research

When it comes to setting up an eCommerce store, the research process is like an unending process. The more you delve into different links and sites, the more information you get. Also, more research can help clear the doubts and prompt actions. Even for the best eCommerce website development company like us, nothing begins without thorough research about the industry and the current market trends.

For example, you could begin looking out for products that offer better profit margins. These days most online shopping websites have dedicated columns listing the most wished-for products. Some of these sites also allow a sneak peek into the products, their buying frequency, and what are the categories into which people like to sum up their shopping experience.

There is so much to learn about item promotion costs, holding, and shipping prices for different products, as it differs for each. Equally, there is much to learn about handling and reducing any overhead charges for different kinds of products by availing of complete eCommerce website development services.

Ultimately, the goal of your business venture is to seek higher profits and make a mark in the market. At the end of it all, you must learn how to translate the entire process into a profit, and this requires extensive research.

Trial and Error

The real validation for any product you wish to launch onto your eCommerce site can happen only by a trial-and-error.

This does not mean you are entitled to risk the security and trust of your potential customers. Neither does it mean you need to compromise on your investments and ship out products at risk.

What you could do is minimize the upfront investment, and try to analyze which of your chosen ideas can be translated into success. Also, you could use the help of promotions to drive traffic toward your product and assess the kind of response it manages to get.

Partnering with an experienced eCommerce web development company, can reduce your investment risks and produce fail-proof products for your business.

Try this out on finishing the chapter:

• Spend some time online to assess and decide upon a few great product ideas for your website. And jot them down in a notebook or an Excel sheet.
• Type in a few keywords you can associate with your product idea or ideas and visit the websites you feel most attracted to.
• Leave aside the details and try to take note of what could work best for you. In the Excel sheet, make separate columns for the – idea, popularity, sold items, customer reviews, and so on.
• This organizational planning of your research and ideas will help you narrow down your potential business forms while you are out looking for an eCommerce website development agency to develop your platform.

Narrowing Down Ideas to Just a Few

You might have realized by now that jotting down ideas or coming up with new ones is comparatively easier and more interesting than what you are supposed to do after it – assessment and decision-making.

The process of narrowing down ideas to make a call for your website involves so many activities at a single time. Part of which you are supposed to do while much of it is to be taken care of by your eCommerce app development company. Like understanding the market demand, assessing your potential and niche, understanding the customer response and need, estimating any scope for future growth, and so on.

In this chapter, we are going to go step-by-step in helping you carry out the above and much more. So that out of the entire bucket of ideas you have gathered by now, you can pick out a handful to proceed ahead.

Elimination Game

We are likely to have collected some very mainstream ideas along with some unique ones during the previous process. Hence, the first and foremost task that you need to do is to start eliminating the ideas that you don’t need to work on.

Being your eCommerce development agency, we want to draw your attention to the fact and understand that most of these websites with the mainstream ideas have already made a mark in the customer’s minds regarding their service. Therefore, it would be wise to not set foot in such common areas unless you are going for something more specific, novel, and adding value to your customers.

Second Layer of Research

At this stage, you might want to go through the second layer of research. And this time diverting your attention towards current trends only to filter out anything on your list that seems outdated or negative. Here, your partnered eCommerce app development company can help you distinguish them.

Next, you could continue to expand your research by keenly observing related items. It might also lead you to narrow down your services to a selected band of products and services.

Perhaps your extensive research could help you in cutting down your product ideas to just a few ones.

Say ‘See You Later’ to the Competition

Become aware that there are too many brains from all around the world that have the same forum for the display of their ideas and are trying out their luck. Therefore, it is challenging to be able to remain exclusive of all competition, even after having the best eCommerce website development company by your side. However, what you can do is try to minimize the chances of such unwanted clashes.

Out of the long list of product ideas you might have, it is advisable to filter out those that have stiff competition existing in the market already – ideas that are nothing unique for customers to come running to.

By providing personalized attention with custom eCommerce website development services that address the specific needs of your users in an intuitive manner. That gives your users ultimate satisfaction and sustains their loyalty to your business line.

The essence of owning a unique product idea lies in the fact that you do not want to end up fighting for a place in the digital world.

As they say, one thing always leads to another. The process of narrowing down these ideas could help you chalk down the great idea you were looking for?

Where is My Profit?

The number one thing that any business enthusiast should be concerned about is the profits that his products or services will make. Being your eCommerce website development company, that is our priority too. Maybe you could begin narrowing down your ideas to products that have less overhead costs and better prospects of making profits.

Often, the choice of products that the business would launch gets heavily impacted by the facts and figures like setup costs, overheads, and the likeability of making profits in the market.

That said, it is essential to realize that what is most important when it comes to calculating product prices and profits is the kind of conversion rate that is achievable. Perhaps you would want to consider making delivery available for some parts of the country or maybe anywhere in the world. Hence, the mechanism for each would differ, and so would the kind of products you could keep in each category.

You need to keep in mind at this stage that different products have different performances when it comes to promotional costs, shipping charges, and even charges related to holding and maintenance along with the eCommerce web development services.

This should be able to guide you in narrowing down your list of product ideas where you would be able to strike a balance between all the monetary factors.

Going for a Niche Store

Thanks to the world of eCommerce, people can now shop for literally anything online. However, one genre that continues to remain open for exploration is that of the niche store.

Niche drop shipping stores have such a high potential to be translated into successful e-stores with the proper guidance of an expert eCommerce website development company. And the reasons are manifold. Firstly, you have your chance at uniqueness.

For instance, there can be multiple online websites selling kitchenware. But perhaps your idea of opening a niche store that deals only in etched glassware for all home needs could be one of its kind in the market. Here, you would have a specifically targeted audience and yet a broad base to begin with. Because you have chosen the product wisely enough to cater to anyone who wishes to have jealous guests.

Such a niche store is easier to highlight and promote amidst the vast crowd of generic sales. And escalate much faster to become a household name.

Deciding on a Marketing Strategy

What many people fail to realize while setting up an online business is the vitality of an effective marketing strategy. Here, your eCommerce web development firm can help you form a robust marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals.

Because you cannot apply the same marketing strategy to all kinds of products. And a product and its marketing channel are like a unique combination of a lock and key – they don’t work as expected with others.

Hence, the best way to handle this stage would be to go for a tabular comparison of the product components you need to take care of during marketing. Apart from that, you can determine the role of SEO in marketing your products, the weight of Search Ads, Facebook Ads and Display Ads, email marketing and so as integral to any marketing strategy.

At the end of this tabular comparison, you will also need to weigh your resources, capabilities, and talents to be able to extract something meaningful out of the analysis. Also, keep a tab of your budget and project time.

This will help you a great deal in getting your product ideas to fit in the channels with well-tailored eCommerce development services that you find most suited to your temperament.

Say ‘No’ to Seasons

There must be a few products on your list that are very seasonal in terms of customer demand.

There could be a few items that are dependent on the season like winterwear or beachwear. Such products see escalation exclusively only during particular times of the year. Investing your time, energy, and money into such product ideas would leave you with comparatively negligible proceeds for the rest of the year.

This is why it is essential to say no to such seasonal products and services.

Evaluating Product Ideas

So, you are done with all the research you needed, at the end of which you will have the following

• Ideas about what domain you would like to cater to in terms of products and services.
• Further refinement of ideas to understand what suits your temperament, capabilities, target audiences, and budget.

From this stage on, you need to focus on setting up your own business with a successful eCommerce website. And here, you will be assisted consistently by your eCommerce web development agency to evaluate your products to hype up your e-commerce site.

Considering the knowledge you have acquired and the skills you have to hike things further, let’s begin first with a comprehensive guide on product finalization.

Deciding your Business Niche

It is imperative for a business these days to have a niche category to be successful. Because there are too many competitors in the market to be setting up a general shopping website. Secondly, the customer is searching for such niche stores because the online world has made their demands very specific.

Hence, let’s evaluate your niche products for their potential in terms of a market success rate. The first step would be to understand what exactly is meant by an eCommerce niche. An eCommerce niche tends to narrow down on the ideas and pick out a domain that caters to either a particular target audience or a specific idea.

Working with an eCommerce niche provides you with the option of handling unexplored areas or areas that haven’t received requisite attention yet.

As your eCommerce web development company, we can certainly say that you have a fairer chance of success and big numbers with the niche store compared to a general one.

Benefits of the Niche Store

For any business to succeed requires a combination of cleverness and hard work. However, the first benefit of a niche store would be the immense opportunity it provides. While the other benefits can be explored in detail below

• Customer Attraction

A customer will be more attracted to a store that sells graphic t-shirts based on the latest trends than browsing for one such piece among the array of other t-shirts available on another website. You can get such a niche e-store with the help of an eCommerce app development company.

Because, in these days of digital madness, the customer knows they can find anything and everything they are looking for. This makes their choices specific, and your decision to go for a niche store is a hit.

• Participating and Creating Trends

With a niche store on your mind, you are not just availing the option of working with some of the latest trends in the market with your specific work area, but you are also creating them yourself. And we as your eCommerce development company, help you take it digital.

Suppose you have chosen handmade items as your niche, with the correct marketing and brand awareness. Then you might be able to bring the craze of handmade goodies back into trend.

• Chance to Stand Out in the Market

By going for a niche store, you have already reduced to a great extent your immediate market competition. Above that, it gives you a better chance of standing out among your contemporaries with a distinct online store with a reliable eCommerce web design company.

Besides, your potential customers will be able to easily identify the class difference between your niche-specific services and other standard or general ones available in the market.

Being different is, after all, the trendiest thing to be in the market these days.

• Lower Advertisement Costs

The best thing about the niche business is that you already have a defined target audience. This means there is comparatively less advertisement your product requires.

Be it social media marketing or using platforms like Google Adwords, you do not have to worry about making your advertisements for a large and diverse customer base. You spend lesser money on advertising, which can be great savings for other areas of focus.

Moreover, your eCommerce development company will design a comprehensive marketing plan for your product as needed which would be cost-efficient for your business.

• Higher Product Prices

Another characteristic of customers when they are browsing for niche products is that they are willing to pay higher prices for these products.

Usually, compared to a standard store, customers choose more specific websites for their particular needs.  And wouldn’t mind paying a little extra to get something they have been looking for. That’s exactly what you’ll be getting from your eCommerce development firm. This means, you can place your product prices a few notches higher, which reaps in greater profit.

Your niche store must deliver the required uniqueness and quality of the product as well as service. And that’s all it takes to create a loyal customer base.

So, what could be some niche store examples? There could be special genres like beard oil for men and customized chocolates for various occasions! The choice is yours to make.

Applying Various Filters on Ideas

Being a top eCommerce website development company, we know that ideas matter a lot. It is one thing to kickstart a business; it is another to sustain it. Neither of the two is possible without great business ideas. When it comes to eCommerce, the importance of the idea increases even more with time because competitors never cease to make entries into the market.

This makes it very important that we know what mistakes are to be avoided, right from the stage where we are evaluating and finalizing our products.

Right at the beginning, let us discuss the importance of filtering out products based on their likelihood of not working out for you.

• The ‘Keep at Bay’ Filter

Essentially, there are a few products that are simply not going to do well for anyone in terms of the existing scenario of the market. Because these are the products that no customer wants at all.

Also, just because your idea might address a pain point of the customer, or it is both cost and function efficient, doesn’t mean it will be in demand. So how do you know so? The answer is your eCommerce app development services.

Besides, certain products are so commonly available in the market that you will be ramming your head onto a truck by choosing to endorse those in your business.

Keep such products at bay from your business ideas.

• The ‘I Can Pull it Off’ Filter

Both knowledge and confidence are extremely necessary if you are wanting to launch an eCommerce website. But do not play foolhardy. In this case, you need to filter out all those products that you don’t think you can pull off and leave them aside for good measure.

There is no such claim in the world of eCommerce that smaller, easier-to-handle ideas do not turn into successes. Whether the idea is too complicated for you to execute, or it sounds too big for you to handle, the best way is to not go for it. But also know that whatever you decide upon in the end, you and we as your best eCommerce development company together will pull it off.

• The ‘Target Customer’ Filter

After all your research, a study based on your product choices, and narrowing down the ideas to a niche category, you must have got a clear target audience in mind.

The key here is to identify any product where you seem to either not know the right target customer, or that doesn’t fit according to your ideas. Because not knowing the target customer is a big drawback in the entire screening process.

• The ‘No Shortcuts’ Filter

Shortcuts are easy and hazardous to your business in the long run.

Remember that if it’s the ease that you are looking for when trying to set up an eCommerce venture, the latter probably isn’t a field for you to explore. However, having a good, dependable eCommerce web development company by your side may ease the burden to half.

There are several articles available all around the internet describing product ideas that will take less than a couple of weeks to get you started on your eCommerce venture.

The truth is that if you want to taste success, there is no replacing the time you need to spend on research, narrowing down to a few ideas, and so on. Until you have what you want, and your niche eCommerce store is all set to be launched.

Therefore, if you still have any ideas on your list that have made it so far only because they would be easy, it is time to chalk them out of sight.

• The ‘Sweet Pay’ Filter

At the end of the day, we are setting up this eCommerce venture for the profits it will bring us. Also, as your eCommerce development agency, we are aware of the market prices, the standing, and positions of some of our biggest competitors, and the worth of our product idea among the potential customers.

Therefore, if there are any products on your list that you think might not be able to earn you good profits for any reason, it is time to eliminate them. The fact that you will have to struggle for desired profits upon using them in your eCommerce venture is reason enough to chalk them out.

So, you have already set a couple of feet on this path toward setting up your eCommerce business online.

The two things you have to keep in mind are – how to create or get inspired to create unique product ideas for your business, followed by narrowing them down to a select few. But what next?

Even though you have not defined with precision the products and their specifications, by now you have some idea about the genre you wish to work in. It could be from ethnic fashion to sports gear, from automobiles to hotel bookings, from renting furniture to homes, and so on.

Now you should proceed towards a detailed competition analysis of the market you wish to launch your website in. Do not fret, because your eCommerce website development company will completely guide you during the process and further understand the analysis.

Moreover, you will be surprised to know that these competitors are the very people who can inspire you. And also help you crack the very idea you have been waiting for all this while.

How will the Competition Analysis Help?

You are right in thinking that ideas need to be unique, and competitors need to stay away. Funnily enough, the world of eCommerce works a little differently.

Although you are encouraged to have completely original ideas, it wouldn’t hurt anyone to take a little inspiration from others – whether they are doing something excellently well, or wrong. In this process, your partnered eCommerce development company can prove to be an ultimate help.

Both cases can help you frame something better in comparison to your company.

• You could identify the weaknesses of your competitor and transform them into opportunities for yourself.
• Also, you could take inspiration from their strengths and learn what the must-dos are for a successful eCommerce website.
• Additionally, you can gain a fair and pragmatic idea of the real scenario in the market today – customer demand and response, brand positions, market prices, etc.
• Meanwhile, you can analyze what challenges you could face because of your competitor and share with your eCommerce web development company to make your website adequately prepared for the same.

Conducting a Competitive Analysis

Recognizing Your Ideas

Unless and until you are sorted about what kind of items you want to sell on your eCommerce website, it will be really difficult to estimate what kind of competitors exist in the field for you. Before your eCommerce development agency could help you give shape to your business idea, you have to pin down one that drives you the most.

To begin with, categorize your eCommerce website’s size, nature, and idea.

• Is it something very small and nascent?
• Are you planning to shape it into a large enterprise with a properly framed structure?
• What are the goals you wish to achieve with your eCommerce website?
• You can analyze what challenges you could face because of your competitor and make your website adequately prepared for the same.

To understand these points, you need to follow a three-step procedure.

• Make an inventory out of the capabilities of your eCommerce website.
• List the customer needs your website would target.
• Mark any areas that make your eCommerce website unique and outstanding.

List Your Competitors and Reasons

Considering that you are well aware of your own goals by now, start noting all the potentially strong competitors you might have to face in your market.

You need to start by gathering the information you deem suitable for the collection of considerate amounts of data. You can even turn to your custom eCommerce development company at various stages to help you make sense of and utilize the various set of data that you are collecting.

Here are some reliable and hassle-free sources for the same:

Use other eCommerce Websites – It is super easy to browse some of the top shopping websites like Amazon and eBay to find out about companies and sellers. And learn what they are doing best in terms of your target products.

Besides, you must make sure you also cover the unique features, offers, and attractions they have associated with their goods to turn them into such successes.

Decoding Business Models – What is equally essential is decoding the business models of these top-notch competitors when it comes to your chosen products.

Here, you can use google extensively for this purpose. Or turn to your eCommerce development company to help you economically understand the models better. And you will find several blog posts dedicated to the business models of such companies. So try figuring out what works for them and what doesn’t.

Using Social Media Platforms – It adds a second layer of knowledge about these brands, their style, popularity, their social media marketing strategies, and so on.

Try finding out what role social media has to play in these companies’ success. Further, measure and correlate their sales with their marketing strategies and customer response to them by employing efficient eCommerce web development services.

See what elements they are using to make their products stand out among the crowd – content management, graphics, free gifts, surveys, and so on. It is important to be systematic in your approach to this competition analysis, lest you should feel lost in a crowd of data and information.

Next, make a list of their strengths – any good points you can absorb from their marketing strategies, their position in the market, the reason behind that, their social media presence, etc. Also, any weaknesses you can catch hold of like uninteresting content, feeble user response, downsides reported by customers and users, and so on.

After this basic data extraction process, you will have known enough about these companies to be able to categorize them further into three types – primary, secondary, and tertiary. Thus, channel your focus more towards those competitors with who you have a direct chance of clashing in the market.

Businesses dealing with similar products, and services, or having the same target audience in the market are primary competitors. While secondary competitors are the ones who offer products or services on similar lines as yours but to a different target customer group & are not a very serious threat. The tertiary ones do not have many similarities with your eCommerce platform but a few.

If you are unable to recognize your immediate competitors and remote competitors, you can reliably turn to your eCommerce website development company to aid you in identifying them based on your collected research.

In this age of the internet, there are clashes among several distantly related companies as well, whether or not you sell the same product. A chain dealing in hand-woven craftwork could prove to be a competitor for one that sells factory-made home décor.

Thoroughly Scanning their Websites from Start to End

For the next step, you already know who the most important competitors are for you in the market. And what products they sell, what is their marketing strategy and their business model, who their customers are, and what their prices are.

Now, the most important step is to conduct thorough research on their website. Glancing through a company’s website can broadly give you interesting insights into fairer details – the company structure, its goals, the size of its establishment, and its future scope. Besides, it gives you immense opportunity to know their targeted customers.

Also, you get a good idea of the kind of customer experience their site has to offer. Whether there are any special features to take note of, or any downsides that you would like to steer clear of in your website, and so on.

As you begin your research, your eCommerce web design company will list out several aspects you will need to take care of when you are exploring these companies’ websites. Some of the most important ones are as listed below:

• How Do they Present their Products?

So, we have had enough talk about what products they are selling. And we have already reviewed their labels, brands, prices, and so on. What is left to analyze is how they are selling their products.

It is important to take note of how they describe their products. Is there a particular style they use for all their products? Do they use lists and pointers for describing the product, or do they use graphics to explain the information?

Is there any use of humor in their descriptions? Does it work in their favor? Are there any unique ideas when it comes to photographing and displaying the product before the customer? Have they taken professional help from any best eCommerce development company? Looking at their presentation from various perspectives can give you an idea about how you want to present your products to your customer.

• Do they have a Separate Tab for Blogs?

It is common these days to say; Content drives customers. A big reason behind the success of eCommerce websites is usually the kind of blogs they create to naturally attract wandering minds on the internet.

If you think of it, even you might have spent quite a few minutes online reading some fascinating articles on some products you are interested in. Without knowing that you are playing your part in some eCommerce website’s marketing strategy. Therefore, it becomes really important to devote ample time to analyzing the blog pages of the competitor’s website.

Often, these blogs are written to address the pain points of customers, with the company’s product as a suitable solution generally inclusive of their eCommerce web development company. Try to identify these content strategies. How often do they post content on their website? How do they address the reader? What are the issues they write about? Try to find the answers to these questions for a comprehensive understanding of the website.

• Do they have any Newsletters or a Mail List?

We can often see companies trying to create a mail list of their potential customers, which they can use to spread the word through emails. Ensuring that the company’s name remains etched in the mind of the customer. The mailing list also ensures the customer can trust the company with ease and also recommend it to others looking for similar products.

Are there any special discounts or attractions to subscribe to? Is there any way the customer needs to naturally subscribe to the list to proceed to a further step?

What happens when one clicks on subscribe? What kind of content do the customers receive in their emails? Does it have any effect on you as a customer?

• What are the Contact Options Available for the Customer?

A good website also needs to be well-connected with the customers. And this can be done by providing multiple contact opportunities.

People hardly call a website’s number unless they have to. Are there more comfortable options for the customer to use as social media apps, live chat boxes for example?

Considering what kind of products you have decided to sell, you can learn from the competitor whether or not having a live chat is necessary and beneficial to the company’s sales in any way. And have them or more such effective means of communication integrated into your site by informing your eCommerce website development agency.

• How Effective are their Options for CTA?

You need to have a clear idea about the Call-to-Actions of the given competitor’s website. Besides its efficiency, its clarity, strength, and usage options are of importance too.

• Are there any ‘Coming Soon’ Features?

It might be only upon browsing the website that you find out some special genre your competitor is about to cover shortly. It might even happen that this might clash with some of your ideas too.

On the other hand, you may also use this data to analyze how to break down your ideas into smaller fragments. In case you now think launching all products at once wouldn’t be as impressive. Perhaps this can also channel your thoughts towards launching a few products at a time with the remaining stock in the coming soon section thoughtfully created by your eCommerce website development company to maintain the customer’s anticipation and excitement.

• Does the Theme of their Website go with the Main Idea of the Business?

Although this is something related to design, it is something the customer will not be able to resist noticing whenever they visit the website.

Every good website on the internet has a great theme for enhancing the customer experience. So, try to figure out what elements your competitors have used on their website to make it stand out.

Are there elements & offers that convey the motives of the business? Is there a particular element that you think could be related to what you have to offer?

At the end of the accumulation of all the above data, it might be a good idea to complete a SWOT analysis for better comparison and weight. It will also guide your eCommerce development company to prepare you with a distinct site and apps with aligned themes and features that guarantee significant business growth.

Extracting Market Standings and Performance

Next, the most important thing for you to do is to ask your eCommerce web design company to get you the market position and the performance of your competitive company over the years. Understanding the market position of the competitor gives an insight into their performances and strengths. Along with the reality of the market itself. That is the two of the most important observations you can derive for your business.

What is essential for understanding the competitor’s position has been listed below:

• The message your competitor’s brand is trying to leave for their customers.
• The kind of products that customers are more inclined towards purchasing from their website.
• Ways in which their brand manages to stay unique and desirable.
• Action by your competitor to make sure they remain ahead of other competitors in the league, which you have chosen not to speculate much.
• The features they choose to highlight often about their brand.
• The USP (Unique Selling Point) for the company and how it is being made known to their site visitor.
• The steps that are taken to ensure their target audience pays attention to their products and services.

The above-mentioned points can help you a long way in determining what are the best and some not-so-great features of your competitor when it comes to their market presence assisted by your eCommerce development services.

Further, you can also try to observe the following few points for a clearer understanding of the market itself –

• The features related to the product of your choice that are seeing higher sales.
• The replacements or modifications the product has seen in recent times.
• The kind of price hike or drop the product has seen in the market in the past few years.

These are only a few of the many other points that you can note in case you want to do in-depth research about the market and also your competitor’s standing in it.

In no time, you will yourself be expecting to make a mark in the same market. Therefore it becomes important to be adequately informed. Team up with your company and exploit all these collected data and features from their best-in-class eCommerce web development services.

Deriving from their Strategies

After you have taken note of them, deriving from them is the most important thing. Because after spending so much time researching about your competitors and looking out for the best ideas, spending no time on analysis and inspiration leads to zero results.

Firstly, you should try to derive their pricing strategies after all you have studied about their products, offers, and performance. Because eCommerce websites are the place where customers tend to get items at desirable prices and attractive discounts.

If you have a pricing strategy or some idea of what your product prices might be, you could now choose to compare how you and your competitor differ in this matter. As this can help you in dual ways – you learn how products are rated in the market these days, and you can also craft out ways to attract more customers with better prices than your competitors.

Other things to take care of would be their shipping and return policies, their approach to social media marketing, and customer relationships.

Sharing and discussing all these findings with your eCommerce app development company will aid them to strategize your apps and sites more effectively and holistically to yield desired results.

Finalizing Your Target Audience & Product

You have done the research, and have cross-checked the facts and figures. Also, you have found out your fiercest competitors and their strengths and figures. Hence, by now you have answered a lot of questions and sought even more in your process of evaluation of the narrowed-down ideas.

Now, it is time to bring all the analyses together for some final brainstorming over the product, its feasibility, and the target audience. Besides, you must also take the necessary steps not just to define but also to plan on reaching out to your target audience with custom eCommerce development services.

What is the Target Audience?

A specific group of people you have identified as the intended or potential customers of your eCommerce venture is the target audience for you.

This is largely based on the type and impact of your product and services. Because people will resort to using them only when they need them. As the catch is that you cannot create these needs; you can only identify them.

How to Define your Target Audience?

Step 1: Understanding Customer Demographics

We live in a world where the global population has crossed the seven billion mark. It is quite tricky to go for a business venture without defining your target base.

The results of not going for a targeted plan would be poorer marketing, more cases of irrelevance for customers, and thus unsatisfactory performance of your company in the market. To avoid such disasters, keep your eCommerce store development company in the loop and prepare a fail-proof plan that is customer-centric and user-friendly.

One of the ways to define your target customer base would be by studying the target demographics:

• The age group, you want to cater to
• Whether your products are gender-specific or gender-neutral
• Specific geographic location
• Whether or not you are providing to a particular ethnicity or religion
• Filtering based on education, profession, income, etc.

Step 2: Defining the Characteristics of the Target Customer

After you have taken the above call, you would want to define in detail what are the characteristics of the target customer in your mind.

Your eCommerce development agency can derive these from the demographical data you have collected, as well as psychographic data based on the audience’s behavior and demand. Also crucial is to go back to the first research you have done about the pain points and needs of customers, and the potential solutions your product has to offer.

A combined inference from all of the above can help you derive strong solid points about your target audience.

Step 3: Creating a Strong Brand Value

Utilize the powers of content creation and brand awareness to create substantial value for your eCommerce venture with the best eCommerce development company. For the time being, you need to plan out strategies for both and keep some content handy, which you can float at the time of your store launch.

Only by spreading the word can you ensure customer attraction and retention. Another powerful impact of content management can be sharing more and more information with the customer and allowing them to explore your products on their own. Just keep in mind not to promote content to irrelevant customers, that is way out of line with the target audience you have defined earlier.

Before we proceed to the next step of setting up an eCommerce store, you need to go through a brief revision for your product, your market, and your goals.

Just revise the following points –

• Am I aware of the potential market size and landscape?
• Am I aware of the type of market I have chosen – trend, growing, fad, or flat?
• Who are my target customers?
• Have I fixed a potential selling price?
• How have I filtered out my products if I have at all?
• Is the goal of my product any of the following – problem-solving, attacking a pain point, or serving customer hobbies?
• Do I have a marketing strategy in my mind?

We agree that reaching up to this stage where you get to set your eCommerce storefront is a mammoth task in itself.

For now, we can say that your job is half done. And now we come to the technical aspects majorly involving your eCommerce website development agency, besides some components that do require creativity and brainstorming.

However, the fact that you have made it so far implies that the rest of the process is going to be a cakewalk for you.

Deciding the Name of the Storefront

Although this isn’t something that needs many days and weeks of brainstorming. But you should go for a catchy brand name. After all, you want it to be the talk of the town.

You might even take help from the multiple unique business name generators available on the internet that offer you dual help – first, by giving you great name ideas based on your products and services. Secondly, they also make sure you get unique domain names for the store.

Analyzing & Buying Host & Domain

This step is as hard as it is crucial to undertake and needs some guidance and quality check involving your eCommerce development agency as well.

One of the most important criteria when it comes to choosing a domain is quality. And this brings us to a few factors we need to take care of while ignoring the others.

• Do not go for external SEO ranks to analyze the domain. Examples include PageAuthority, DomainAuthority, MozRank, and so on. Your eCommerce development company can help you in that to make things easy.
• Also, do not get influenced by the domain’s PR without taking into consideration other important factors.
• Use Google’s PageRank or PR for wiser decisions when it comes to analyzing domains. Because of Google’s vast resources, relevance, and technical prowess.
• Backlink quality and diversity play an important role in determining better backlinks.
• Always go for domains that have higher authorization levels.
• Try analyzing the external links of the domain – the total number of external links on the page of a backlink. If the number is too high, it may indicate spam. Usually, the lesser the number, the better the backlink is.
• The older a backlink, the lower the chances it has of being removed.
• Verifying that the top backlinks have the following features –

• They are real – they exist in the HTML code along with the page
• Are placed in a related context
• And they are placed on a reputable website

Selecting the eCommerce Platform

Selecting the right eCommerce platform matters a lot for your business. Simply listing the products and their descriptions on the website are not enough if you want to attract a suitable customer base. Your eCommerce development firm must help you identify and select the best platform that aligns with your business needs.

The characteristics of a good eCommerce platform are

• One that suits the goals and objectives you have set for your business.
• That delivers impressively when it comes to outcome and performance.

Factors to Consider when Selecting an eCommerce Platform

• Hidden and Overhead Charges – Different kinds of eCommerce platforms have different types of charges. Most noticeably, these can be divided as maintenance costs, costs involving UX changes and upgrades, or those incurred as a result of the implementation of reforms. So, you should try to make sure that you choose a platform where quality is ensured despite reasonable pricing as part of your eCommerce website development services.
• Vendor Expertise – You should try to ensure that the vendor has the skills and expertise required to meet all your requirements and the complex work procedure.

• Flexibility – Not just in terms of platform suitability, but also when it comes to processes like pricing, payment methods, and collaboration with other software or websites.
• Scalability – Of course, you want your business to grow, and that requires that the platform grows too. Any platform that does not offer features of scaling when the need arises is not fit for your eCommerce venture.
• Support – Be it facing issues during the setup or execution, emergency support from your platform vendor’s side is expected and necessary at all hours of the day.
• Mobile-friendliness – eCommerce is continually evolving, and smartphones are not just their present but also their future. Therefore, the platform must be able to provide the user with a mobile-friendly experience of your website.
• SEO Optimization – The latest trends and the most important customer demands – everything gets reflected in the highs of the search engine these days. Therefore, your platform must be able to guarantee efficient SEO techniques for your success.
• Security – These days, the internet is the riskiest of places to be in. Especially for newbies to the commerce and trading world. So, make sure your eCommerce web development services provide you with security against all kinds of threats.
• Customer Security – Besides the security of your data, it is important to ensure that the customer experience doesn’t go sour because of any personal data security issues.
• The opportunity of Personalization – The eCommerce website is going to speak about your ideas and your business venture. It is very important, that there is enough room for personalization and freedom of expression, which the platform must provide.
• Google Merchant Integration – Google merchant is a special tool that can be utilized by companies to make sure that their products are displayed as search results in the shopping tab on a Google page.

The platform you choose must provide such integration for information sharing. 35% of Google Searches have turned into transactions within 5 days.

• eCommerce Analytics – A built-in analytics system is a must if you want to have a proper scope of the evaluation. Along with the monitoring of all the important metrics and KPIs related to your eCommerce venture.
• Social Media Integration – Nowadays social media sites have launched their business accounts to help people promote their establishments in multiple circles. Go for a platform that supports integration with such social media sites as Facebook and Instagram.
• Payment Gateway Options – Customers are relying more and more on online payment methods, which come today under various platforms. A reliable eCommerce platform would offer multiple payment gateway options to the customer as well as to you with ease.

Crafting & Adding a Brand Logo

Your store logo is a symbol of your business. It is something that the customer will readily identify with your company. Therefore, the logo must depict the central idea or the message your business wishes to convey.

Several eCommerce platforms these days provide the feature of creating logos based on your brand name, the message you wish to convey, and the chief idea behind your business. At the same time, it should be something that stands out and is memorable for the potential customer.

There are also several talented graphic designers in the market with eCommerce app development services when you require such creative content.

If you have something on your mind, you are free to go ahead and develop a unique icon for your eCommerce website yourself with the assistance of your eCommerce web design company.

Based on the above features and also based on the latest trends, as your dependable eCommerce website development company we have shortlisted a few eCommerce platforms that you might want to consider.

Each has its pros and cons, yet you better experience them personally before finalizing any of them.

WooCommerce

This is one eCommerce platform that continues to be a popular choice among many entrepreneurs. Despite several new and successful names coming up in the market, it has managed to keep up with the changing demands & thus its position.

With a record of 3.3 million websites to its credit, WooCommerce owns an astonishing percentage of eCommerce ventures on the internet.

Pros

• Free and Open-Source Platform – The platform is open to all designers, programmers, and developers free of cost. This enables developers of an eCommerce web design company to easily produce high-quality web apps and sites with WooCommerce.

It works based on open collaboration. And is the best go-to option for anyone who has experience working with WordPress.

• Opportunity for Customization – You have the liberty of choosing a desirable theme for your eCommerce website from the vast library that this platform provides.

You have the scope of customizing everything from the header, footer, sheets, etc. Thus, it makes it great for newbies as well as professionals.

• Flexible and Secure – Two of the most desirable characteristics of an eCommerce platform are available with WooCommerce.

They offer you extensive cybersecurity as well as safe payment methods. Besides, you could be working on almost any kind of online store with its flexible platform. Comprehensively, it allows consistent eCommerce development services from the companies guaranteeing high-end security for all the data.

Cons

• Extensions are Not Free – Although working on the platform is otherwise completely free of cost, certain extensions on it aren’t. So, you have the option of availing them either by a monthly fee or time-to-time charges.
• Too Many Plugins – Performance does leave a mark, doesn’t it? Although having so many extensions seems great at first, it gradually leads to slower working speeds and hindrances to performance.

Shopify

Established in 2009, Shopify is another trusted name in the world of eCommerce platforms. Also, they provide end-to-end user service, which means you do not have to go elsewhere to set up your eCommerce store super quickly.

Pros

• Speedy and Secure Hosting – Shopify handles everything that you need to worry about. It includes eCommerce security and domain hosting issues – hackers, caching, data compliance, and so on. Along with this, it brings a lot of speed and accuracy to its process.
• Brilliant Customer Support – Shopify customer support is hands-down the best in the market. Owing to its great database that covers everything from phone, email, and chat support to FAQs and ever-ready information.
• Marketing Campaigns Made Easy – Marketing is one of the most crucial parts of any eCommerce venture’s working. And this is something that Shopify has grasped well and excelled in it. It extensively aids your eCommerce development agency to design & implement robust, result-oriented marketing strategies for your varied business.

Cons

• Costly Affair – Unlike WooCommerce’s free features, Shopify charges extensively for most of its services. Therefore, you have to pay not just a monthly charge but also a fee for platform transactions, credit card charges, add-ons, etc.
• Initial Setup Issues – The initial setup process at Spotify is not as smooth as it must be. Taking help from an expert eCommerce website development company becomes necessary as it takes a lot of research and background knowledge as well as enough time on hand to do so.
• Not-so-great Blog Software – Content is king when it comes to eCommerce. Yet Shopify seems not to have paid much attention to that.

The blogging software is not very satisfactory, and users will have to look for other platforms for better content generation.

Magento

One of the most widely-known names in the digital commerce world is Magento. It has been a stiff competitor to every other name on this list.

Pros

• Flexibility – Being an open-source platform, Magento allows a great deal of customization, third-party integration, and room for achieving chosen features without compromising on experience.
• Unique Features – Its list of abundant unique and exciting features has lent a great stance to Magento in the market.

There are options of varying prices for different sets of customers, creating shopping communities with other users, and so on.

• Large User Community – Being one of the leading eCommerce platforms in the world means that it has a huge user community. Thus, it makes the platform very dependable and trustworthy with many opportunities for eCommerce development companies.

Cons

• Very Few Developers – Magento is a large company with a large user community. Also, it has a vast database and files. Given that, it makes the number of authentic Magento developers look seemingly small and insufficient.
• Expensive – Even though a particular version of the platform, the community version, is free of cost, you need to pay a hefty sum to be part of the enterprise community. Also, there are additional charges for the installation of extensions and other resolutions for which you will end up paying a little extra for eCommerce web development services.
• Dissatisfactory Product Support – Due to the absence of requisite monitoring and inadequate support, users on the platform are liable to experience unresolved or unattended issues along with the dangers of scams at times.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce has to its credit one of the most robust entries among the top players in the eCommerce market today.

Pros

• Easy on the Pocket – Compared to the downsides of other contemporaries, BigCommerce offers much cheaper packages and software performances.
• The flexibility of Customization – BigCommerce’s vast diversity of business design tools helps ease the tasks of the eCommerce web development agency for customization to create unique theme-based websites.
• Commitment to Security & Support – BigCommerce offers aggressive security measures to make sure that your business faces the least risks of cybersecurity-related issues. Besides, it offers 24 x 7 support for all your platform-related issues along with your complete custom eCommerce development services from your company.

Cons

• Absence of a Lite Version – BigCommerce is yet to develop its lite version. With its contemporaries working towards creating lite versions that can cater to anytime usage on the go, perhaps working on one could popularize BigCommerce as well.
• Themes are Expensive – The great virtual design tools that come with BigCommerce are not all free. Some of the best themes come at exorbitant rates.
• Fee Increases as you Taste Success – The platform caters to its services at very reasonable annual rates initially. Although, once your company starts accruing higher revenue, the annual pricing increases as well.

PrestaShop

Introduced to the digital commerce world in 2007, PrestaShop has succeeded in making a challenging and competitive identity for itself.

Pros

• Easy Installation – The best thing about PrestaShop is they offer a very comprehensive way of dealing with the app installation and event registration process for the eCommerce development agency. It’s almost like launching your website was just a few steps away.
• Demographic Assistance – You can use PrestaShop for opening a store catering to any target audience from around the world. As it has a  vast database with relevant data, currency, and language support.
• Economic & Efficient – With reasonable pricing and a user-friendly environment, the platform can be truly called efficient and economical.

Cons

• Limited Scalability – PrestaShop must not be your choice if you are looking to expand your business significantly in the future. For it offers limited features for scalability.
• Inadequate Support Services – It can be said that PrestaShop’s biggest downside is the absence of a dedicated support team to handle any issues and grievances that platform users face.
• Dissatisfactory Design – The design features are nowhere in comparison to its other contemporaries. And would work well only for low-budget eCommerce ventures.

OpenCart

OpenCart is an online store management system based on PHP. It has all the capabilities to build, scale, and run your business.

Pros

• Easier to Go International – OpenCart is the ideal platform in case you want to go international with your eCommerce venture. With the support of multiple languages and a vast pool of customization resources, you can make the most of it with your custom eCommerce development services.
• Offers Built-in Analytics – With its complete set of metrics and reports for timely accurate analyses, OpenCart ensures that you do not have to go anywhere else for these routine check-ups of your company’s well-being.
• Flexibility & Scalability – Two of the most sought-after characteristics when it comes to eCommerce platforms come to life with OpenCart.

It offers you the flexibility of functioning, pricing strategies, payment gateways, and shipping options. Along with the feature of scalability as your business evolves into greater success by the day.

Cons

• Poor Customer Experience – Customers require speed as well as security. While the latter is not an issue with OpenCart, it tends to slow down during processes like check out, which is something you would not want your customer to experience.
• Incompatible Installations – It is after installing the seemingly perfect extensions and plugins that you might notice that they do not work perfectly with the platform. So, this leads to a bitter experience and unwanted delay in work.

Choosing the Payment Gateway Provider

Next, we come to set up the payment gateway provider for your eCommerce venture. With the help of your availed eCommerce development services, you can integrate numerous payment options to make it easy for your users. No wonder you would want to have multiple options available for your customer.

Yet a brief understanding of the pros and cons of each of the biggest names in the market would be better before starting.

PayPal

PayPal is an immensely popular payment gateway used throughout the world. It is one of the payment options you must have come across on many of the shopping websites so far.

According to PayPal, they have more than 80 million active accounts across a whopping 190 markets, working in 24 currencies across the globe.

Pros

• Easy setup and usage.
• It is a widely popular platform & customers are already acquainted with it.
• A lesser fee is charged compared to other contemporaries for a merchant account.
• Can be integrated with multiple shopping cart systems.

Cons

• No seller protection policy for eCommerce goods.
• Procedures, such as withdrawals, take a good number of business days.
• The fee they charge for chargebacks is quite high.

Stripe

A widely used third-party payment processor, Stripe is a payment gateway platform that enables payments through a wide variety of methods. It includes currencies from different parts of the world, credit and debit cards, e-wallets, and so on.

Pros

• It offers the cheapest payment processing fees among many of its contemporaries.
• Stripe offers much scope of customization for programmers during their eCommerce app development services.
• Offers to cater to international payment solutions with its efficient database and work structure.

Cons

• Users are liable to account cancellation without an effective notice period because of the constant review of account activity by Stripe.
• Not much scope for working with the gateway if you do not have a programming background or are not ready to hire specialists like a top eCommerce development company.

Authorize.net

Authorize.net offers some unique features in its work domain like an advanced fraud detection suite and customer information management. Hence, it is considered one of the most reliable payment gateway options in the market.

Pros

• It comes with an entire package of services under one umbrella. So, you need to pay to just one platform for everything ranging from the payment gateway to recurring bill services.
• Better availability in more parts of the world compared to other payment gateway options.
• No cost of setup is required and can easily be put up by your eCommerce web development company within a few days.

Cons

• Users have reported multiple failed payment processes, at least 5-10% per month.
• Several reporting issues, and inadequate data analytics support.
• The number of currencies it accepts is merely 7, while contemporaries like PayPal accept over 100.

Skrill

Founded in 2001, Skrill has slowly emerged as one of the most popular payment options in the world today. It is especially popular among casinos as a much-used payment solution for credit renewal.

Pros

• Any user-related information remains only within the company’s servers, hence a secure framework.
• No fee is required for money withdrawal, just a 1% commission.
• Major fund transfers are possible with a Skrill account.

Cons

• Few international banks refused to cooperate with Skrill.
• Slow responses at times.
• Payments to other processing items are often restricted.

Checkout

One of the most easy-to-use and affordable payment gateway options available today. Checkout has been designed exclusively for the best experiences when handling eCommerce ventures and can be easily integrated with efficient eCommerce development services.

Pros

• Multiple languages and currency support.
• The opportunity of the fully customized checkout process.
• Optimal fraud prevention tools and technology.

Cons

• Not much flexibility is offered in terms of features and capabilities.
• A skilled team from the best eCommerce development company will be required for implementation if you lack the expertise.
• The dashboard is not very user-friendly and clear in the beginning.

Finalizing the Shipping & Billing Information

Whatever eCommerce platform you prefer eventually for your venture, along with the payment gateway options, must be decided on by this stage.

After that, you with your eCommerce web development company proceed to the settings on the platform provider. And adjust any information related to the billing and shipping processes for your customers.

For example, you might want to offer free shipping to any corner of the world. Significantly, 79% of US consumers have admitted to preferring free shipping products to those with charges.

In such a case, you need to make sure that first – you do not have non-international shipping zones chosen on the platform. Secondly, make sure to tweak the rates as per your wish, say the international zone rate changed to ‘free.’ It depends on what kind of shipping rates you wish to charge from your customer; edit the settings accordingly.

Next, the billing information needs to be taken care of. On your eCommerce platform, under the account section, you would need to enter the appropriate billing information regarding the account. Here any money from the customer’s payment is supposed to reach.

Go through these two steps carefully. Although editable in the future under your eCommerce development services, you do not want to be less careful with the monetary information.

So, we are done with yet another subsection dealing with eCommerce platforms, payment gateway options, and billing/shipping data. Here, your appointed eCommerce website development company can now help you plan and integrate the logistical aspects of your e-commerce business.

Following that, ensure that you procure the products you have planned for at optimal prices, best quality, and from trusted manufacturers.

Finding Out the Right Distributor

You have chosen to go for some sort of a niche store as far as your eCommerce venture is concerned. And the fact that you have planned some unique and desirable products to be listed on your website, garnering them from the best manufacturer is a challenge.

Besides, if you intend to go international with your commodities, you could need a global manufacturer. So you can cut down on shipping costs because of geographically constrained suppliers.

Analyzing your Industry’s Distribution Channels

There is no single way in which the product of your choice is supposed to reach from the manufacturer to your storage and digitally to your web apps or sites.

There could be multiple distribution channels, and their components vary from industry to industry. All you need is a little research to find out what the channel looks like for you.

Usually, there are four types of industry channels for different companies.

• The Manufacturer: Boutique stores, for example, avail their products directly from small manufacturers.
• Importer/Exclusive Distributor: Some industries have channels where the importer has the exclusive rights to hand down the products to the retailers or smaller distributors after procuring the products from the manufacturer.
• Wholesaler/Regional Distributor: In bigger industries, such distributors take care of products and hand them down to local wholesalers or directly to retailers.
• Jobbers: The most common kind of suppliers we see handing products down to various stores.

Layer 1: The Global Manufacturer

The best idea would be to start directly at the source of product manufacture. As the benefits of approaching the manufacturer directly are many. In the process, you are cutting down the commission costs of the product coming down to the distribution channel.

You might even get links to other distributors in case your venture is not big enough for the manufacturer to supply directly to you. Moreover, it helps you in establishing links in the industry you are to stay in.

Layer 2: The Wholesale Supplier

After you receive a list of distributors’ names, you can start approaching them one by one. Also, you must try to find out from the data related to minimum order requirements and the unit prices at wholesale rates.

This allows you to get comparative results and proceed to take a step you deem best for the business. Here, having your eCommerce website development agency around you who has a fair idea of the market and can suggest handling such distributors with ease.

Layer 3: An Internet Search for Wholesalers

The internet is not a bad place to search for anything and everything you want to these days. So try conducting a simple Google search about the wholesalers catering to niche products like yours. And be sure to avail relevant information and contact details of the best in the market.

Layer 4: Hunting Major B2B Marketplaces

several online marketplaces have an endless number of active manufacturers and wholesalers you would want to reach out to. Some of the best ones in the market are Alibaba, Global Sources, Buyer Zone, EC Plaza, Busy Trade, and EC21.

Layer 5: Joining Major Forums Related to your Industry

The other thing you could do is join public internet forums catering to the goods and services of your industry. Moreover, these forums are great places to meet and connect with people who can help you with product supply or other goods and services.

Layer 6: Participating or Visiting a Trade Fair

One of the most powerful ways to meet people directly related to your industry or even your niche would be to attend a trade fair.

Such trade fairs take place on a grand scale in some of the biggest cities, you could visit the nearest, or whichever you feel would click for you to serve your requirements.

Deciding the Product Packaging

In eCommerce packaging and shipping are two very important things apart from the technical expertise of your eCommerce development company shown in your highly-functional website. Because it can decide what your customer thinks about your service.

The packaging helps make or break your brand image. Several reasons may catch the customer’s eye as they hold your product in their hands within the package. Any visible tampering with the product packaging is undesirable and leads to a bad reputation for the company. Besides, loose packaging is likely to damage and risk the product itself.

Not just this, good packaging is a great way of publicity through the customer. It is likely that a content customer either posts a picture of their product along with the package on social media.

According to Dotcom, 39% of the people have shared pictures and videos of their new online purchases. And the most widely used platforms were Facebook (84%), Twitter (32%), Instagram (31%), YouTube (28%), and Pinterest (20%).

Factors to Consider When Deciding on the Packaging

• The specifications of the product: the weight, size, shape, type, the value of the shipment, and so on.
• The material of packaging for both external and internal packaging. For instance, you can choose between single and double-walled for external packaging. And bubble wrap, foam wrap, foam peanuts, airbags, crumpled papers, corrugated inserts, and so on for internal packaging.
• Careful sealing of the package is an extremely important step. Additionally, pressure-sensitive and water-resistant tapes are a must. And so is the importance of securing edges over multiple layers.
• There are other methods like a single box method or the double box method depending on the kind of product and the ways of transportation.

Finalizing the Shipping Methods

After the hefty task of making sure that you pick out only the best options available for making your website user-friendly with the assistance of your eCommerce web development company, and taking care of perfect packaging, we now come to the topic of shipping methods.

Choosing shipping partners might feel like handing your service and customer experience to a stranger and relying on them to make sure that the customer has a seamless experience. This can get tricky. Therefore, it is crucial to pay more attention to this step.

To begin with, you should have the following shipping strategy goals:

• Higher conversion rates
• Lesser costs incurred
• The higher average value of placed orders
• More efficient operations
• The increased margin of the target audience

Shipping From Home

Better called shipping from a warehousing solution, this is when you decide to stock products for an extended time. You might want to have a large storage center for it. And equip it with the necessary resources for various processes related to packaging and shipping.

This is comparatively a cost-effective solution because you are paying the rent for space and hiring the right people. It’s just that you would have to take care of a lot of processes, inventories, and quality output.

Shipping from Third-party Logistics Company

Shipping with a third-party Logistics Company, or a 3PL is simple. In a nutshell, the 3PL fulfills customer orders for the eCommerce retailer, that is you. Meanwhile handles everything from timely organized deliveries to proper packaging and so on.

Also known as drop shipping, this is one way where you, the retailer, don’t get to physically see the product when it is dispatched to the customer. The physical location where the 3PL conducts the entire process is known as the fulfillment center.

So, you can see it as an efficient link in the supply chain. It helps you divert your attention towards other components while they take care of the shipping for you. Also, it saves you time, energy, and responsibilities.

Picking a Date & Time for Launch

Picking the right date and time for launching your eCommerce venture is extremely important. Because that is the day it could either make or break your brand name in the market.

With the internet being accessible to almost anyone in this wide world, an eCommerce website like yours designed by an expert eCommerce website development company with uniqueness and niche products is not going to take too long to make an impact.

Believe it or not, it matters to all stakeholders when you are planning to launch the eCommerce venture. Hence, the perfect date and time will come to you once you have gone through these questions carefully.

• Is your product likely to do well at a particular time of the year or month?
• Are there certain days when customers are more likely to respond to novelties in the market? Like say on Tuesday based on research by Sunscrapers is considered good.
• Is your business international? Then it would mean you need to take care of time zones evaluating the hour of the launch.

Understanding and evaluating the above factors can help you decide the exact date and time for launching your product.

Designing a Classy Landing Page

Maybe you already have something in mind about how your landing page would look. Like some random sketches about themes, icons, messages, and slogans. Share them now with your custom eCommerce development company to design a classy landing page.

A landing page is like a digital storefront. Just like their physical counterparts, they act as individual entities that the customer takes a glance at to feel impressed and affinity towards your business. It must give a sneak peek into your products, offers, uniqueness, and niche.

You can choose out of the many themes available on the eCommerce platform of your choice with the necessary tools for customization and addition. Or you may customize one by availing of eCommerce website development services to get what you have envisioned.

Adding Social Sharing Buttons

In the current world of the digital revolution, social media is one of the most powerful tools you can use to enhance your platform’s popularity. With the help of your eCommerce web development agency, you can expand your site’s reach to more social media platforms for increasing your user base.

Also, you can browse some of the top eCommerce platforms and see ways in which they have integrated social media sharing buttons. Some offer attractive discounts to their customers after the successful sharing of products and promotional posts. Ultimately, attractive offers and discounts for doing the same ensure it’s a win-win situation for both sides.

No wonder you want more and more people to publicize your website on different social media platforms. This will help in promotions without you having to work hard for them. As the customer will be promoting your website among their circles.

To do this, you need to ensure that you add social sharing buttons on your website via eCommerce web development services. So that people can share products, reviews, offers, and much more within their circles and on social media platforms. Like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, besides messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Messenger.

Double Check for Everything

Just before launching your website and the array of amazing products, your eCommerce development company will do multiple testings on your site. And double-check everything for any cases of missing out on any crucial points or any kind of careless errors. Here’s a little checklist for you to go through before you land in the market with a bang!

• Check for any little errors, such as typos on the landing page itself or content that doesn’t seem interesting and easy to read. Moreover, the sentences should be small, the language simple, and the images relevant and captioned.
• Make sure your time zone and related settings are correct.
• Check if the images have been optimized for speedy loading.
• Make sure all call-to-action forms and contact forms are working correctly.
• Double-check that all anti-spam protection measures are in shape.
• Make sure you have tested all payment gateway options at least once to ensure there are no technical glitches anywhere.
• Double-check all security features and steps.
• Try using the mobile version of your eCommerce website to make sure customers have a seamless experience.
• Check to ensure that the navigation throughout your website – going to new tabs and pages, loading products and their information, going to and fro the shopping cart, and so on – is easy and simple.
• Double-check your robots.txt file to ensure there is always efficient filtering and display of your website in case of related searches on search engines.
• Make sure the website is compatible with different kinds of popular browsers in the market.
• Use an appropriate compatibility checker to see if all plugins or extensions work well with the platform.
• Double-check all the URLs on the website.
• Ensure you have an SEO plugin configured for your website.
• Check your HTML and XML sitemaps for these two things – that they exist and are working sans errors.
• The social media integration buttons work, and links or posts can be easily shared.
• Make sure your eCommerce web design company hasn’t missed out on designing the ‘Contact Us’ page with all relevant and updated information. See if the links lead to the right website (map, portfolio, etc.)
• Also, have a suitable backup option for your website installed before launching it.
• Double-check all the legalities:

– Image, plugin, font licenses

– Inclusion of a cookie warning

– Terms and Conditions section updates

– Inclusion of terms and services policy

– Verification and processing legalities

– GDPR compliance

• No unwanted plugins, components, tabs, and links are there on your site.
• Check for the responsiveness and efficiency of autoresponders, if any.

It’s Time to Launch

You’ve done the checking, and found everything is in place. Also, you’ve arrived at the date you have planned to launch your eCommerce website. But there’s still room for perfection. Maybe you should wait for a little more?

Certainly Not. Because the biggest fault you can make at this stage is to wait for your eCommerce website to be perfect and free of all glitches or outdated characteristics before it is to be launched. In reality, there will always be such pits to fill in, which you can as well do with time as the business expands.

So, it’s time to take action after the long time you have spent turning your vision into reality. Together with your drive for achieving your dream and the technical prowess of your eCommerce web development firm, it is time you enter the world of eCommerce right away.

Even after the website has been launched and is already in action, there is vast room for improvement, integration, and inspiration. Also, your eCommerce website development services don’t end with the post-deployment. But another phase begins with enhancing your customer service.

With time, as your business grows and more customers visit the website, their necessities will also arise that you cannot ignore. Be it the need for customers to engage with you directly over problems, or the need for setting up better experience features for them. Hence, this is the time to start working towards better customer service.

Official Business Email for Customer Service

There are several benefits of setting up a professional business email address that specifically caters to customer service only. Here, your eCommerce development agency will help you set up and integrate the official email portal for your e-store.

• Your brand name becomes popularized every time a communication is established over the email address.
• Business email accounts are provided with extra security layers.
• There are lesser chances of your professional email address being targeted towards the spam folder in customer emails.
• It also helps improve sales by showcasing your professional side to the prospective customer.
• Customer inquiries and tickets now have a chance of availing of professional responses.

All you need to do is find the perfect domain name for your eCommerce venture and check whether it is available or not. It is preferable to use the website domain name only, for it shows your professionalism and dedication.

Besides, customers are more likely to remember a unique domain name for your business rather than an everyday email address. Additionally, this increases the chances of sharing your links on social media platforms.

Implement Chatting Facility on Storefront

The live chat feature allows the customer to connect immediately with the website admin through a messaging platform integrated with the website.

Regarded as an important website feature by most customers, live chat is essential to incorporate because it can

• Reduce the pressure of emails.
• Increase sales and reduce costs.
• Helps in better understanding customer issues and demands.
• Great push if your contemporaries don’t have the feature yet.

Integrating live chat onto your website is affordable and easy to implement from your eCommerce web development services.

61% of US consumers have admitted to messaging online businesses within three months. Some common live chat providers in the market are – Zopim, Olark, Helloify, ClickDesk, and SnapEngage.

You can also follow a three-step process for integrating live chat into your website on your own.

• Secure the code given to your eCommerce website development agency and paste it onto your website template.
• Install the necessary software for the live chat messaging service provided by the platform you choose.
• Add the relevant data asked for according to the platform you are using.

That’s it! You can get started.

Creating FAQ for your Storefront

Most customers these days are on the lookout for the FAQ page on an eCommerce page. eCommerce web development company building your website must strategically design your FAQ page in it. Here they can get a fair idea of almost anything they need to know about the website, its policies, its products, and so on.

What Should an eCommerce FAQ Page Be Like?

Your FAQs must be simple, informative, and relevant that must correctly address the queries of your customers. To get a clearer idea, it must be,

• Short and Simple – The customer will not be interested in paragraphs or essays. But would want to have brief answers to their quick questions.
• Based on and Appear like Customer-queries – After all, you are writing from the customer’s perspective. Make sure it sounds like it was written for them.
• Positive and Promising – At no point should it seem like the customer’s queries are unwelcome, no matter how obvious they are.
• Inclusive of Call-to-action Forms – Perhaps not always necessary, but CTA forms can boost customer activity on your website.

With Relevant Contact Information for Further Queries – It may happen that the FAQ doesn’t have questions or answers that the customer is seeking. Therefore, provide an opportunity to ask for further information.

If the sea of competitors hasn’t made you realize the need for building your brand’s presence, look around one more time. You appointed the best eCommerce website development company not just to build a digital platform for your product but to build your business brand.

There are Billions of internet users in the world looking for newer, better, and more specific websites to answer their needs. Leveraging all that, building your brand with little steps is very crucial to gaining any success in the long run.

Make Use of Social Media

We have already learned in detail about the importance of social media for business promotion and popularity. Notably, 83% of people have admitted to using Instagram to discover and research new products and services that they would like to purchase.

Yet, we need to stress some steps you could take after your website is launched to make your presence bigger on the social media platform.

• Consistency Across Multiple Social Media Platforms

Different media platforms demand differently when it comes to social media marketing. While Facebook is always more about written content and website links, Instagram is about images and compelling pictures with catchy storylines. Whereas Twitter is about eye-catching slogans, LinkedIn is about video stories that tell people what your brand is about.

The mammoth task for your eCommerce web development agency is to remain consistent across all these different social media platforms, according to their demands and niche.

Thus, assign a content development team to prepare the different content, graphics, slogans, stories, and videos to spread the word. Only then can you successfully channel your efforts towards brand building.

• Showcasing Brand Personality Through Graphics

Graphics go a long way toward making a mark on the minds of the viewer than just written content.

Because the latter might not register or ring bells for every social media user, any form of graphics attracts, sustains, and converts the interest of the customers. Your custom eCommerce development company ensures that powerful and well-thought-of graphics can spread your brand’s message.

• Weave a Compelling Story

Here, your eCommerce web development agency will have to come up with unique stories, videos, and data. They can use statistics, customer experiences, and surveys for that. As we aim to create something fuelling for the customer to think about so they head straight to your website after.

Work with Influencers

Influencers on social media do not have as wide a reach as celebrities, but their audience is much more specific. So this can work to your benefit if their viewers overlap with your target audience.

Influencer marketing can help you reach out to people so you have more scope to sell your products. Because their interests are ‘influenced’ by and aligned with that of your allied influencer.

It is quite easy to look for the best influencer for your eCommerce platform through social media sites like Instagram and YouTube. Or your eCommerce app development company can also help you in identifying the best-fit influencers as per your business. Moreover, you can even go through tools like Google, Peg, or Reachbird. Also, the best part is they are always open to collaborations. Thus, reaching out to them works the trick.

Focus on Content Marketing

Content marketing is one of the most defined ways to make your presence felt on the internet. Your eCommerce website development agency would advise the same and also help you with it as part of their bespoke comprehensive eCommerce development services. Most successful eCommerce ventures have already taken steps to ensure their content marketing game is on point. This includes blogs, infographics, e-book launches, and so much more.

It may sound surprising, but 92% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C marketers use content marketing for brand awareness.

You can use blogs as one of the strongest mediums of information about your business. Besides, the creation of content like infographics, which can be easily shared on social media platforms can boost your visitors.

There are also eBooks for those who love spending time online and want further insight into your work. Remember, the idea here is to generate informative, brief, and interesting content to flock to your e-commerce site.

Moreover, there are many talented content writers available in the market or even your eCommerce web development services provider can also lend you some. And with a simple introduction of your goals and quick browsing of your site is all they need to deliver exactly what you want for your brand’s promotion.

Connecting with Print Media

Print marketing holds surprising power when it comes to eCommerce, as opposed to the general notions of the two being contrasting.

The print is still relevant and right for your business for several reasons:

• It engages more senses when the customer is reading it as opposed to content on social media. However, the customers are more likely to be paying less attention and multi-tasking.
• You can cater directly and specifically to your target audience. Hence, your acceptance stands the test and works the magic.
• Print media is much more personable and appreciated than anything social media covers.

What could all work? Well, beautifully crafted catalogs, circulars, appealing postcards, and journals are areas you could work on as part of eCommerce development services strategies.

Make a List of Email Subscribers

Email marketing strategy your eCommerce development agency is going to use to give more to your audience. It is another very important tool you cannot ignore when your business has launched, and you are looking to expand it.

As more customers visit your website, an email marketing list can ensure they do not get bored with repetitive content. And are also aware of anything new that is on your website.

You can begin by providing sign-up forms on your website. It could be either for a regular newsletter you to share or for a subscription to the latest updates about your store and products. Here, the footer of your website is the most optimal location for the same.

Next, you could make popups with eCommerce website development services to be in the constant vision of your visitors. Whether standard or incentive in form, for achieving higher conversion rates of people signing up for the email list. Use a catchy line to make them feel like they have so much more to explore with your brand.

Start collecting email addresses from your customers as another resort to email list addition. You could do this at the time of checkout, for instance, or when they are adding products to their carts. Also, you could use strategies like providing offers or insights for more customer attraction and even retention.

Email marketing campaigns, when carried out regularly and creatively, can have positive impacts on your marketing and brand position. Just ensure that you are well aware of the latest email marketing trends, and you are good to go.

It is no fad that the most successful eCommerce platforms these days are completely metrics obsessed. Data and analytics guide you if you want to see your venture doing well soon. After all, there is a scope of improvement in only those areas where the performance can be monitored.

A top eCommerce development company will always make it a point to systematically collect and analyze the user data for enhancing your business operations for growth. It allows them to improve and customize your eCommerce development services to make the most of the available data for expanding business opportunities.

There should be three main goals in your mind when you are channelizing your thoughts toward eCommerce metrics.

• Focus on KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) followed by measuring the corresponding metrics.
• Having a sound analytics system to conduct accurate measurements of the above.
• Setting benchmarks for KPI lists for guidance.

Here are a few of the KPIs you could analyze to better understand the performance of your eCommerce venture and help improve it with time.

• Sales per Month – The total annual sale divided every month.
• Avg. Order Size – The number, value, and type of items being ordered by a customer in a single transaction.
• Conversion Rate – Total number of items being purchased out of the total number of products added to shopping carts.
• Site Traffic – Number of visits, likes, hits, & views your website gets.
• Value Per Visit – Total website revenue divided by total visits on the website.
• Traffic Source – The different sources customers have used to land on the website: social media, google search results, and so on.
• Social Media Followers – Its increase and role over time.
• Customer Lifetime Value – An estimated amount of the total purchases a customer is likely to make with your venture over the period that they are associated with it.

All these can be taken care of by your custom eCommerce development company.

Both upselling and cross-selling have benefits for any eCommerce venture when people are out there to buy the best.

Yet, there are several areas of concern. Especially when it comes to savvy customers who felt their choices are misguided by the options offered to them based on their originally chosen item.

However, this does not hinder the role that these two approaches play in the success and increased sales of businesses, especially online stores. So, enhance your customers’ shopping experience with eCommerce website development services while targeting upselling and cross-selling in the background.

Let’s try to understand the roles and benefits of both. This is something you will very commonly see on Amazon, the leading online eCommerce store.

Understanding Upselling & Its Benefits

Essentially, upselling is one of the techniques employed by eCommerce ventures. It aims at persuading the customer to buy a better, improved, and upgraded version of some product or service that they have been looking for or have already purchased.

The goal is to increase the order value and the profits acquired. Along with not compromising the quality of the product offered to the customer.

The probability of successfully using upselling to a customer is around 60-70% if they have already purchased the original version earlier.

Benefits of Upselling:

• Increased customer lifetime value
• Helps build better customer relationships
• Higher chances that the customer will revisit or purchase an upgrade again
• Increased profits and order value

Understanding Cross-Selling & Its Benefits

Cross-selling is a technique used by eCommerce websites to sell related or complementary products to customers who have either made a purchase on the website or are looking up some or the other.

It has proved to be an excellent strategy for achieving almost the same goals as upselling. However, cross-selling differs in the fact that it offers ideas to the customer about purchasing something that he might need in case of purchasing a particular product.

This has a fair chance of converting into a success. As customers usually do not prefer purchasing just a single item when they are shopping online.

Benefits of Cross-Selling:

• Increase in sales revenue
• Improved customer satisfaction
• Increase in customer lifetime value
• Better customer relationships
• Great for both the customer and the retailer

With such a comprehensive insight launching a successful, niche eCommerce site will become a cake-walk for you now. Giving you a peek into the current scenarios of eCommerce beginning from its inception to the present times, makes you aware of all the before and current of the online platforms. As you are more lured into the online world, we also empowered you with the right knowledge of the perfect assistance in the form of a custom eCommerce store development company that will help you customize your projects. Further, you were made aware of all the benefits of employing them, the process of doing so, and how they can aid you the best.

Thereon, we focused on helping you to narrow down your potential idea that you can develop into a thriving eCommerce platform. We are sure it restored your belief that any good, distinct idea can be economized upon with an e-store, taking you to endless opportunities. While you are at it, there were factors that you had to keep in mind to benefit fully from your eCommerce site or an app.

Combining all the knowledge and the hard work for research with the technological expertise of your eCommerce web development firm ultimately helps you in building your unique brand identity. To keep you boosted, all the possibilities were supported with facts, data, and statistics that only reaffirm that a thoughtfully planned and launched e-commerce site cannot fail. Moreover, it will lead to providing a better user experience, customer service, and increased loyal clientele, translating into assured business growth.