E-commerce: Meaning & Development

E-commerce Website Design & Development

This is the creation of e-commerce website for the purpose of buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. The primary goal of e-commerce is to generate lead to increase sales and maximize profit. E-commerce development process is the same for businesses or entities on a global scale. Hence, to develop an e-commerce website, the following should be taken into consideration:

• Establish a social media marketing strategy
• Choose an e-commerce website name
• Develop the e-commerce site

Establish a social media marketing strategy

The social media marketing plan is a document that outline the predetermined goals and strategies, including the metrics designed to monitor and measure performance for the purpose of marketing a company’s products or services to the target audience. The social media strategy should include the following:

• Determine a social media marketing goal to be achieved
• Establish a social media budget
• Identify and evaluate the company’s target audience persona
• Identify the most relevant metrics
• Carry out competition analysis to identify major rivals, best practices, and spot opportunities
• Select the right social media network
• Carry out social media investigation or audit for the purpose of improving on all social media efforts
• Develop compelling contents including images and videos that generate lead
• Track performance of social media activities by monitoring and collating promotional campaign data using relevant tools including Google Analytics, Exactmetric, GTMetrix etc.

Choose an e-commerce website name

The e-commerce site must have a unique and identifiable name with which it can transact with. To achieve this, the company will need to search for suitable and available name that has never been used by anyone. Once the name has been selected, the company will need to register and host the domain name by a hosting company, so that visitors or customers can use it to enter a company e-commerce website.

Develop the e-commerce site

Building an e-commerce website can be done through several open-source content management system platforms including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla etc. The open-source management system makes it easier for organizations to develop and manage digital contents. In building an e-commerce website, the following functionality should be considered:

• Aesthetic Design. The website should be aesthetically designed in such a way that will be appealing and attractive to visitors or customers. To achieve best design, the appearance and theme should be choicely selected. All the relevant widgets and plugins that are intended to improve the functionality of the site should be given high consideration. The responsiveness of the site should also be given high priority so that visitors or customers can access the site through any devices including mobile phone, tablet, laptop etc. to enhance their user experience. Research has shown that more visitors or customers are shopping online through mobile devices. Hence, it is essential that the website is mobile responsive and geolocation technology can be added to make it easier for customers to find the nearest store.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Capabilities. This is the process of enhancing website visibility when individual or organizations search for products or services through search engines. The better the visibility of a company’s pages in search engine, the more likely to attract attention of prospects to the company’s business. There is technical, on-page, and off-page SEO optimization. All contents to be posted on the site should be SEO driven so that they will be visible to potential customers or prospects. Doing this will make the company’s products or services to be organically ranked, especially on Google search engine.

• Site Speed. The site speed should be improved for better customer experience. If an e-commerce site is taken too long to load, it may prompt the potential or existing customers to change their minds by leaving the site and shop at the nearest store. Relevant plugins can be installed to optimize the site speed. Fast loading e-commerce site will enhance SEO ranking on Google.

• Product & Store Management. The products should be well arranged and labeled. Product name, price and description should be added. The product description is a vital part of e-commerce website. This is because it provides the opportunity to tell the customers about the features, measurements, colors, textures, and underlying benefits of the product. The product image content should be a mix of entertaining and informative items. This is because the product content should resonate with the visitors or customers. In today’s digital age, compelling image contents have the capabilities of attracting and appealing to customers. The size of the product image should be the same across the online store. The site should possess the functionality of editing and adding new product and the ability to track inventory so that customer demand can be met always.

• Payments and Checkout. The payment methods should be flexible and user friendly. Hence, the right payment method is vital for closing a deal. If the method is too cumbersome, the customer could abandon the cart and never return. Also, the payment method should be consistent with the payment processing needs. Payment gateways should be embedded on the e-commerce site. In the digital age, multiple payment gateways can be integrated to make the site more user friendly. It is generally believed that flexible and seamless payment options speed up the decision-making process and enable customers to even spend more on the online store.

• Security (Data Protection & Privacy). Online transaction and payment involved dealing with sensitive data including customer phone number, credit card details, and other payment details, which proffer additional responsibility on the e-commerce store to handle sensitive information with more care. Adequate security should be embedded on the site to protect customers or visitors’ details. Otherwise, there could be loss of customer confidence and the company may be liable to fines, penalties, or litigation in case of any breach of security. At a minimum, the e-commerce site can be integrated with an SSL certificate, and the information properly encrypted to prevent unauthorized access to the site from hackers.

• Integrations. The e-commerce platform should be integrated with the right and relevant plugins for better functionality. This will enable the site to be well customized as intended. The e-commerce store can be backed up or integrated with a 3^rd party cloud computing system to prevent any unexpected interruption or site crash. Also, for the purpose of social media marketing, the site could be integrated with the company’s email marketing system or social media accounts including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc.