If you ever thought about how to create e-commerce, this reading may interest you. Our business goals will always need to increase the sales of our business. Either if you want to start your own business to sell online. Or if you’re current business already has a physical store with different product lines, but you need to sell more. In both cases, you may need to evaluate how to create an ecommerce from scratch.
To evaluate this alternative, some administrative and technical requirements depend on different factors. Some of these factors may be the business line, the resources necessary to manage it, and the budget allocated for this purpose. Technical aspects must also be considered for its implementation, the type of e-commerce chosen, among many more. There are also some limits imposed by the business, such as the size of the business, the number of products in the portfolio, and the brand’s positioning, among others.
Deciding to do an ecommerce
Suppose your business has a wide range of products, such as a retail company, or a variety of services available as an e-learning company. In that case, the proposal could be very interesting. But if your business has a limited product portfolio, it may not be necessary or appropriate because of the cost you must incur in generating the proposal. The decision may also be contingent on business operations, available budget, and technical resources.
However, there may be more solid foundations that favor the use of e-commerce, such as: generating more loyal customers, creating new opportunities to build productive relationships with customers, staying open 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week. It can even reduce your operational costs for logistics and administrative management.
The recommendation in these cases is to carry out an exhaustive analysis for correct decision making.
How does an ecommerce work?
If you are reading this blog, it is very likely that you have a fairly approximate idea about the functionality of e-commerce. It is a website where the sale of products is offered online. You can also clearly differentiate it from a conventional website since e-commerce carries an online product catalog, the possibility of online payments through a shopping cart, a payment gateway, and logistics operators that allow the merchandise’s delivery.
You have to specific managerial, financial, and logistical processes to make it work properly. Even more so, if any of these processes are outsourced to suppliers, critical factors such as delivery times must also be taken into account, as it can affect the commercial process and customer service.
Achieve the development of an online store involves a series of very specific steps ranging from the technical to the integral development of a strategy 360 of digital marketing.
Planning an ecommerce from scratch
The first thing to do is to develop a plan that allows us to visualize the entire comprehensive business. That way, we can establish the necessary elements that are needed for its implementation.
Using business models allows us to visualize it comprehensively. The first thing is to define if the business is aimed at an end-user or a business. Also, the Business Model Canvas is used in the usual way where all aspects of a business are taken into account.
In this part, the different digital marketing strategies that allow us to analyze the business, whether internal or external, should be considered. This analysis includes the definition of the target audience, competition analysis, segmentation strategy, and brand positioning.
Formulating the technical aspect of an ecommerce
With the business plan already formulated, you must choose which platform to use. The market contains a wide variety. You can find web developers who start your e-commerce proposal from scratch. You can also find payment platforms with which you can develop an attractive proposal, through pre-configured templates. Some well-known platforms can be Magento, Prestashop. Shopify, OpcerCart, and even WordPress using the WooCommerce plugin.
The ideal is to develop your own platform, although there are alternatives called marketplace that are e-commerce platforms that already have a domain and that have all the technological infrastructure to put a portfolio of products online. What is not allowed on this type of platform is to customize the pages and use your own business domain. Some well-known platforms can be Mercado Libre, eBay, Amazon, Etsy, AliExpress, among others.
Next, it is necessary to establish the online store’s operational guidelines such as the website (sitemap), the product catalog, the categories of the product portfolio, and all the elements necessary for the e-commerce to comply with the functionalities required by the user.
Developing a user-centered design for e-commerce
When it comes to the online store’s functionalities, aspects related to the elements or tools that have a virtual store incorporated are taken into account.
Some common elements are shopping cart, search box, category menu, product description, product photos, customer recommendations, web forms, price comparison, search filters, and login.
In this part, it is necessary to consider user experience techniques to establish criteria that allow intuitive and pleasant navigation. An essential part of e-commerce to work is not forgetting the adaptation to different devices through responsive design.
Ensuring the quality of service in an ecommerce
The way to ensure the quality of service is by identifying the key processes of our virtual store.
Another of the most important aspects of an e-commerce web design is to cover security aspects. Here, the SSL certificate is considered due to online payment methods, without considering how important it is to SEO. Another element may be the implementation of data management policies. Let’s not forget the definition of terms and conditions of the website.
It is also necessary to consider file backups to prevent loss of information. It is always advisable to manage an appropriate bandwidth. It is worth buying protection software against viruses and malware.
Building strategies for ecommerce
Like a conventional website, e-commerce is a web page that contains information about the business. The difference is that the latter allows you to shop online. This fact makes this virtual store an important channel that provides sales income.
This implies that digital marketing actions and strategies must be established. This will expose the online store to the target segment. It is advisable to use a comprehensive strategy covering different aspects such as SEO, SEM, content marketing, social media marketing, lead generation, e-mail marketing, and mobile marketing.
For read more, Strategies for Growing an E-Commerce Business. Click here
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