How to Build an Ecommerce Website Step-by-Step

E-commerce websites have been in huge demand, propelled by the recent pandemic that forced everyone indoors. Getting a good e-commerce website can be tricky if you need help understanding the technicalities. The article assumes that you will not develop the website yourself and will instead hire a Website development agency. Hence, the article aims to get the website requirement right for you to understand how this helps in your requirement.

Tech Stack Finalization

It is the most crucial part of development. Technological migration can be tricky in later stages, and one should consider it before finalization. One needs to understand all the pros and cons of the language or the framework before finalizing it.

Factors like long-run costing, maintenance, SEO, etc., should be considered in finalizing the tech stack.

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) forms the basis of digital marketing, and your website should have scope for this. Some of the SEO features that should be there are:

• Sitemap: The website should create the sitemap dynamically as per the URL priorities required.
• Schema Tags: The website should quickly generate a schema that can apply through the Google Tag Manager.
• Meta Tags: The webmasters should be able to enter Meta tags through the admin panel quickly. Some default tags should come automatically if any URL does not have Meta tags in the admin panel.
• Alt Tags for Images: When we upload products or blogs, it has images in them. As a webmaster, you should be able to change the alt tags required for SEO. One should not use the product or blog name as alt tags. Instead, a separate page for handling media should be there.

Preloading and lazy loading of images: The images should be reloaded along with lazy loading. Both factors help improve the page speed of the website.

Blog System

You should have a robust blog system on the website as they help in targeting new keywords through SEO. WordPress has the best blogging system, and you should ideally refer to them. The website should allow you to easily create and use the categories and tags, along with their Meta tags. These blogs are used extensively on pages and should have room for eager loading.

E-commerce Functionalities

A good e-commerce website should have the below basic functionalities for you to promote digitally.

• Easy cart, check out, and payment functionality for users to buy the products.
• Shipping charges – You should be able to charge either fixed or variable shipping charges. You can further change it as per the total cart value.
• Cash on Delivery charges – You might want to charge users for Cash on delivery mode, which too can be changed as per the total cart value
• Coupon – You should be able to create and edit coupons that users can apply. You can offer gifts, free shipping, and free COD charges through the coupons
• Offers – You can create and edit offers which users can choose to get additional discounts
• Payment mode discount – If a user pays the total amount, you can give additional discounts along with riders.
• Categories and Tags – You should be able to create and edit categories and tags for products that You can apply to each product. It helps you target additional keywords, and show products per the categories and tags applied.

Check Current Carts

Users add items to the cart, fill in their details, and most abandon it. You should have the option to check the carts created and abandoned. You can further run campaigns on these carts through SMS, WhatsApp and emails. Further, you can add extra discounts on these carts for users to close the final deal and convert them into sales.

You can also send reminder emails using the cron job for the abandoned carts. It would look for all abandoned carts that have not been closed for three days and send emails wherever an email id has been provided. Big e-commerce giants like Amazon employ this trick extensively.

It is a must-have feature, and you should insist on it. It allows you to see what all products have been added, coupons applied and offers selected. It also allows you to check the response of your ad campaigns.

Order History

Users, vendors, and admin should be able to check the orders placed and check and edit their status and details. Ensure the user sees only their order and not others. You can also add features like printing the order or downloading the order in pdf format with your logo on top.

These are some basic functionalities that should be present in any e-commerce website. Most of the functionalities can be quickly developed in frameworks like Laravel, React and Node, WordPress, etc. If your developer says the same cannot be developed or charges extra, you can connect with us, and we will guide you on how to proceed. Our team of website developers ensures that all our eCommerce comes with these robust functionalities and is tested extensively.