While retail therapy is a fact none can disapprove of, the therapeutic nature only advanced to manifolds with retail shifting to home-to-home service. It provides the instant gratification of need and fulfillment to boost the trigger to shop more. The concept of anywhere anytime was borne by this; online sales grow steadily every time, whether it be groceries or luxury.
In 2022, more than 1.8 billion buyers will visit online stores, which is more than 25 percent of mankind!
Convenience marks a lot of difference in this journey, but what made the difference permanent and sustaining was the advance of Covid-19. A disease that single-handedly caught in the four-walled houses. It has come to a point where if today you wish to sell your products in a market, it makes little sense not to take your site online before setting up the whole working of your retail business.
In this blog, we will look at the journey of an e-commerce site and the minimum expenditure required to make it a success.
As the name suggests, when you take your commerce to an online platform and free it from the confines of an in-person setup, it is called an e-commerce website.
According to a report, it is estimated that mobile e-commerce alone will take up 72% market share.
There are broadly 3 models for e-commerce sites:B2C
This business-to-customer setup is where you create a website for selling or exchanging goods or services between a business and a consumer.
B2B
This is a business-to-business setup wherein a business has made a website for another business to work for. For example, any wholesaler.
C2B
This is a customer-to-business serving setup wherein customers go on a website to sell or exchange their products with other businesses. For example, Olx, Ebay, Etsy, etc.
There are 3 ways of creating an e-commerce website, and that is:
While it is always good to give the reins to someone who has mastered this domain, when you are on a budget, the most cost-effective way to build is to start yourself from scratch.
The content management system is your first way to get into the real world of e-commerce without paying a buck and exerting your creative energies into coding; just a drag-and-drop template can provide instant benefits to your website.
According to research, 43% of websites have built their basic platform with WordPress.
It is fair to say that you can take care of everything and every one by yourself, so beginning with a template offshoots the platform itself. WordPress is the free way to get on the bandwagon, and if you don’t mind spending a few bucks on getting up the notch, you can choose Shopify, magento, Wix, etc. as the easiest & quickest way to get into the domain.
When you have the basic structure properly functioning, consider installing plugins to add more functionalities for a hassle-free shopping experience.
This is your brand’s online representation, and this should essentially be patented. From finding a memorable, relatable, and suitable name for your website to create a space for your website, product & user details are stored. This is a head-start in the building of your e-commerce website.
Hosting a website brings much-needed life to your website. In simpler terms, as long as your site has a live host, the website is up and running on its course.
The cost of this activity depends on the complexity, web, and load for the website to work on. And there are different types of hosts that can cater to your purpose:
Nothing can beat a great design that enhances the unique user experience to get the crawlers hooked to the site instantly. From a priority standpoint, it might seem that the look and feel can take a back seat while you are building the e-commerce site from scratch, but with a plethora of e-commerce sites already in place, it is important to provide the customers that look, feel and ease as well.
A catchy & presentable logo can grab eyeballs, and if you have a solid product to offer, it can instantly convert that eyeball into a customer. The experience does matter, and it can also help grab more customers.
What is a great design without a great copy?
Design is empty without relevant, attractive, witty content that helps convert people. An attractive, well-written home page for your website is not where you stop, especially for an e-commerce site; proper, well-written product descriptions are basically your salesperson just on the site, so make sure that they are well thought out and cover all the features and FAQs.
Once you are all set to check off the list for a basic e-commerce platform, the main game begins. Essentially, everyone on the internet today has this basic platform already, thanks to wordpress and Shopify of the world. So it is important to provide your customer with something exclusive and closer to an in-person salesperson in a shop.
A chat feature can instantly add personality to the brand you are building and give your customers a buddy to rely on for all-time assistance with their purchases.
Coming to purchases, one also has to make sure that there is a payment gateway to complete the transaction and get the money.
To keep the site up and running effectively and efficiently, one must also ensure the site has a proper maintenance process. Renewing something is as important as building something from scratch in this fast-paced digital world. One needs to constantly create a system to ensure that whatever is ongoing is in sync, whatever isn’t can be fixed, and new things can be incorporated to be competitive in the market.
SSL Certificate is digital authentication of your website that makes it more secure and enables an encrypted connection. This sanctions the due security over a network that will help a customer trust your platform and shop from it from a place of trust.
Although this is the most basic structure to make the most of the e-commerce platform, it covers the cost of building this platform to off-shooting the platform to cater to the customers better and take the load of more features and traffic.
This platform can be your top way to success and make it work. If you are looking for someone to create your website, you know you can trust us with it.