eCommerce is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the economy, especially nowadays, when technologies are becoming more advanced and customers are becoming more demanding. A simple online store with a few functions is no longer enough. Personalization, high-quality UX, integrated payment systems and warehouse management, as well as a host of other features that will streamline both the purchasing process and business management, are expected. This post will discuss the complex eCommerce development. Topics related to eCommerce software development were discussed, such as b2c and b2b eCommerce development services, technology, composable commerce, and choosing an agency. We will also provide practical tips and recommendations to help you understand how to best invest in developing your trading platform to meet your customers’ needs and have a successful eCommerce website.
Quick Jump
- The use of eCommerce development services
- The best platform for eCommerce development
- Composable commerce
- What to consider when choosing eCommerce development services?
- Requirements for eCommerce website development
The use of eCommerce development services in various business models
As eCommerce distinguishes different sales models like B2C, B2B, multi-vendor marketplaces, etc., the approach to development services should be adjusted to the specific needs.
B2C eCommerce is the relationship between businesses and individuals. Most of us have contact with this model daily, e.g., when buying clothes or house items. The choice of stores is huge, so what makes one eCommerce website stand out from another? The answer is user experience. As competition continues to grow, eCommerce companies that seek success should ensure the store’s usability. It means providing user-friendly websites with all the necessary functionalities to satisfy potential customers and make them return repeatedly.
B2B eCommerce is a business-to-business eCommerce model that represents a relationship created between companies. Online stores of this type most often require a custom eCommerce website with personalized eCommerce solutions. It is due to the industry’s specifics and business buyers’ requirements. In B2B eCommerce development, it is worth taking care of invoicing and integrations with a wide range of systems like ERP, PIM, CRM, accounting, flexible shipping, payment solutions, a warehouse and inventory management system, and a customer panel for managing orders. B2B solutions should simplify business processes and eliminate complexity by automating everything from inventory management, CRM, and accounting while still providing a seamless customer experience and top-notch security.
Multi-vendor Marketplace is a business model that has been repeatedly mentioned as one of the most important trends in eCommerce. It is dedicated to online stores with many independent sellers and virtual shopping malls with separate departments or sales channels. MVM can cover all the basic functions of an eCommerce website and provide custom eCommerce solutions. There are several types of marketplace platforms. Some implementations are similar in appearance to traditional eCommerce.
Regardless of what type of business model you choose, it is worth taking care of development strategies and the eCommerce platform that will have a scalable architecture so you can grow your online business in the future.
Which is the best platform for eCommerce development?
The first thing you should do is choose the right eCommerce platform to build your online store that will meet your business objectives. Many solutions are available on the market, so it is worth thorough research before making a choice. The platforms differ in terms of the type of software (SaaS, open-source, etc.), the price of implementation/maintenance, the segment for which they are intended, and functionalities, and they provide different online shopping experiences. However, regardless of your business size, choosing a platform that will be scalable, efficient, and expandable will bring benefits and allow you to choose a development company in the future.
Below, we present to you 5 of the most popular eCommerce platforms for online sales:
Shopware
Shopware is an open-source eCommerce platform focused on user experience. Its main goal is to provide each online store with a personalized path and deliver an unforgettable customer experience. It is Germany’s most popular and fastest-growing platform, expanding its operations to the global market. It is an open-source platform dedicated to B2B and B2C businesses.
Pros
- Customization options
- Omnichannel solutions
- Extensive CMS so-called Shopping Experiences for creating creative and engaging content
- Developed community
- Shopware PWA
- Flexibility
Cons
- It has a lot of plugins, but many of them are commercial, not open-source
- The on-premise version has 1600 modules, and the SaaS version has 250 modules/applications
Sylius
Sylius is an open-source headless eCommerce platform for medium-sized brands (B2B, B2C) and enterprises that need custom eCommerce development. Sylius is a complex platform that can be flexible and extensible simultaneously, keeping unlimited scalability and continuously adapting to your business goals. Sylius is based on the Symfony framework and includes many reusable components. As a result, it provides superior performance compared to other eCommerce solutions.
Pros
- Flexible, scalable and secured platform
- Not burdened with technical debt
- Based on Symfony
- High code quality and excellent documentation
- Endless possibilities to personalize every aspect of the system and add your plugins
- B2B functions that meet the requirements of business customers
Cons
- Some functionalities have to be created from scratch
- Requires an eCommerce website developer to work
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is an innovative eCommerce solution developed with open-source philosophy and one of the most popular eCommerce systems. PrestaShop has an intuitive and accessible administration panel and many built-in functionalities, which makes it easier to operate an online store and provide the right customer experience. Over 200,000 online stores around the world use PrestaShop technology. It is a perfect solution for small to medium businesses with standard requirements.
Pros
- Active community
- Extensive ecosystem
- Intuitive and extensive panel
- The ability to assign roles Many ready-made templates
Cons
- There is some legacy in the code, and by design, you inherit some technical debt which can affect scaling
- Limited third-party marketing integrations
- No backward compatibility between the 1.7 and 1.6 versions
Adobe Commerce (Magento 2)
It is one of the most recognizable platforms for building eCommerce solutions. Adobe Commeris a good solution for setting up an eCommerce site when a company has a sizeable budget because its development may be quite expensive. The platform is available in many languages and can be integrated with many providers, e.g. offering eCommerce support services, payment gateway integrations and marketing automation systems, invoicing, CRM (customer relationship management), PIM (product information management), ERP (enterprise resource planning) and more.
Pros
- Simplified, responsive interface
- Ready-made extensions
- Established position in the market
- Many payment and delivery options
- Efficiency and flexibility
Cons
- High implementation cost
- The need for an efficient server
- The need for updates (requires the time and work of eCommerce developer)
Shopify
It is an easy-to-use, flexible, and fully customizable platform. It is based on the SaaS model. Shopify offers integration with a physical online store and gives you the option of having a mobile application for managing the company. It is recommended mainly for B2C businesses. It will be perfect for small and medium companies considering developing and selling products abroad.
Pros
- Quick process of setting up a store
- Intuitive and easy to use
- Flexible design (Customizable templates)
- Extensive app store
Cons
- Sales commissions
- Limited content management features
- Customization restrictions (requires specialist knowledge)
For more information on eCommerce solutions, see our blog, where we compared some of the most popular platforms available on the market.
Composable commerce
Regarding platforms, it is worth mentioning composable commerce, i.e., a new approach to building eCommerce systems. It is considered a future-proof solution that will bring new features to market quickly and efficiently. It uses modern technologies and approaches such as microservices, API and headless to adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of the eCommerce business.
Composable commerce stands in the opposite of a monolithic approach to building eCommerce. The monolithic architecture assumed an all-in-one approach; it is a system that includes all components. This means that if one part fails, the entire system may suffer.
That is why it is worth taking an interest in the composable commerce approach, which combines solutions such as microservices and headless. It allows you to select the best eCommerce solutions to meet the goals of eCommerce businesses. In addition, it allows adding or disconnecting to the eCommerce system elements that are responsible for individual functions and come from different suppliers.
Composable commerce benefits
- Quick adaptation of the platform to business needs and customer expectations
- The ability to make changes without risking the entire platform being affected
- A positive impact on the customer’s shopping experience
- Faster and greater scalability
- Ability to create custom solutions
MACH
On this topic, it is also worth mentioning the MACH Alliance, i.e., the developer community established in 2020. They promote a “decentralized” approach to building applications and eCommerce solutions. MACH stands for Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS, and Headless. The goal of this community is to help businesses navigate the modern technological landscape.
What to consider when choosing eCommerce development services?
Of course, choosing the right platform is one thing. The second very important point worth spending time on is choosing a company that will handle the whole eCommerce website development process and provides you with a complex eCommerce website. If you want to be successful in the eCommerce business, you should give your customers the best online shopping experience possible. It usually requires a custom eCommerce site that needs some work from eCommerce web developers.
Many agencies on the market offer commerce website development services. So what should you pay attention to when making your choice?
- Portfolio
- Type of services and technology they offer
- Customer reviews, business partnerships, awards
- Communication during the project
- Price
- Response time
- Project development process
- Maintenance
Find out more about choosing an eCommerce development company.
What are the requirements for eCommerce web development?
It’s time to introduce key features that every eCommerce store owner should take care of if they want to create a profitable business.
A clear and intuitive website
In online stores, the home page is very important; it will decide whether the user will stay or leave the website. Therefore, it is worth ensuring that it shows your products most advantageously and puts a notification that will interest the recipient.
Of course, equally important are the product pages, which in addition to information about sizes, returns, time, and delivery or payment options, must also contain valuable descriptions. It is worth taking care of the appropriate content management system (CMS), which will greatly facilitate creating and editing content and information on the website without knowing HTML, CSS, PHP, or JS.
On the eCommerce website, it is also worth placing tabs such as: “About us,” “FAQ,” “Contact us,” and “Terms and conditions.”
Each page contains information affecting customer satisfaction to help make a purchasing decision. For example, providing information about the delivery time, sizes, and return rules or just creating an FAQ tab will save your employees time because they won’t have to answer repetitive questions.
eCommerce website adapted to mobile devices
The extensive majority of us use smartphones to shop online. It’s a quick and convenient way to shop anywhere. Therefore, it is important to ensure that your eCommerce website is mobile-friendly. Here are the ways to do this.
First, you can create a separate mobile app that will be available for download from Google Play or the Apple Store. However, it is quite expensive to develop and maintain, as applications have to be adapted to each operating system.
Another option is to use PWA (Progressive Web App). It is a website that allows you to download it as an application on the home screen of a smartphone or computer. The application itself doesn’t require installation and doesn’t depend on the operating system (it will work on Windows, macOS, Android, and others), which gives it an advantage over typical mobile apps.
Searching optimization
If your online store has many products in different variants or complicated parameters, it is worth considering search engine optimization and creating appropriate filters. This step will increase the chances that the customer will find and purchase the right product.
A simple method of order fulfillment
One of the reasons for abandoned shopping carts is the order finalization process of too complicated. Usually, most purchasing decisions are made on the spur of the moment, so the final order should be quick and easy to execute. However, a long process can discourage the customer and cause a change of mind.
It is worth taking an interest in a custom solution such as One-Page Checkout to overcome this problem. It puts all the necessary elements of the checkout process on one page. Using this solution in an online store will significantly speed up the order fulfillment process, reduce the number of abandoned carts, and increase customer satisfaction.
Integration with payment gateways
Implement multiple payment options to attract customers to your eCommerce business. Today, convenience and time are what count for users. They usually want to make purchases quickly, so in addition to a traditional transfer, you should also provide the option of paying (depending on the country): Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayU, BLIK PayPal iDEAL, or Klarna. A supply of popular payment methods can result in cart abandonment and a low conversion rate.
Integration with shipping service providers
Most of us, when buying online, expect fast and efficient delivery, preferably by a trusted shipping company. Therefore, consumers need to be able to choose their favorite courier to deliver the order.
After placing the order, the customer should receive detailed information about the shipment: delivery time, order status, package number, and tracking link. Therefore, the best solution is to integrate with external shipping providers who offer services in your target market.
Customers will surely appreciate the wide selection of delivery methods and efficient shipping.
Want to explore the best eCommerce technologies and deep dive into Shopware? Check out our free e-book – A comprehensive guide to choosing the best technologies for eCommerce
E-mail marketing
Email marketing is one of the digital marketing tools. It is a form of direct marketing used to communicate the brand and the consumer. Email campaigns are essential in the eCommerce business as they allow you to build customer relationships, increase customer loyalty, build your brand image and sell. Each of us has at least one email address; thus, we are potential mailing recipients. Sending a large volume of messages is not expensive, so your return on investment (ROI) can be significant. In addition, it is a high-level customer-reaching channel that we use several times daily.
Email marketing is:
- Cheap
- Simple
- Fast
- Measurable
- Interactive
It is worth integrating the platform with an email marketing tool to speed up the process.
Read more about e-mail marketing >>>
Security
Security and protect sensitive customer data in eCommerce is not only a legal requirement but also the foundation for building trust and credibility in the world of digital commerce. Appropriate management of personal data requires the use of advanced encryption technologies, regular security audits, and clear and transparent privacy policies. It is also crucial to implement multi-level authentication systems that effectively protect access to user accounts.
Customer education and awareness about safe online practices also play an important role. Companies should not only inform about best practices but also regularly remind them to be vigilant, e.g., by avoiding suspicious links or using strong, unique passwords.
For eCommerce, constantly updating and adapting security procedures to evolving digital threats is essential. In this way, eCommerce can not only protect customer data but also provide customers with peace of mind, which is invaluable in building long-term relationships.
Summary
Now you know what eCommerce website development services are worth paying attention to and what elements should be included in the online store to reach your target audience, stand out from the competition, and succeed. We encourage you to check out our eCommerce website development services.
If you’re looking for an eCommerce project partner to help grow your online business, look no further! Our team of experienced developers can help design and develop your successful online store, integrate payment systems, and create custom features tailored to your unique business needs. Contact us today to discuss how we can work together to create the perfect eCommerce solution for your business.