Complete guide to build an e-commerce application

In the early days of the internet and web, would anyone have believed it if they’d been told they could conveniently receive a wide range of products and services, including food, groceries, clothing, shoes, and more, right at their doorstep without the need to visit or contact businesses directly? Would they have imagined that businesses that went online would become some of the most successful and prestigious ones? And that an average individual could engage in global business without the need for a physical space to store or handle products? As amazing as all that sounds, the all-encompassing source of these developments is e-commerce.

E-commerce web applications have enabled businesses of all sizes, including small grocery stores and departmental stores, to establish an online presence. Particularly, in the time of COVID pandemic outbreak, many businesses not only transitioned their products online but also shifted their services and operations to remote working. In essence, online buying and selling have become the new normal, and every business now requires a web presence for survival and advancement.

Creating an e-commerce web application is a challenging and expensive task since it involves finding web designers, web developers, or web development companies. However, with the emerging web development frameworks, web development has become an easy task even if you have limited knowledge or skills. If you have a small budget but have basic knowledge of web development, and wish to take your business online, you've come to the right place. We'll provide you with a comprehensive guide to build a professional e-commerce web application.

So, let's get started!

Define your idea and target audience#

Before starting the development of your e-commerce web application, you need to be clear about your business idea, objectives, products or services, and target customers. A quick market survey can help to validate your business idea as well as the demand of the products you're going to sell. Once you’re clear about your e-commerce business goals, it’s time to identify the users of your application. Accurate identification of the true audience may have a direct impact on the features and functionality of the e-commerce application.

Study top e-commerce sites#

To build a successful e-commerce website, it's essential to study top e-commerce sites like Walmart, Amazon, etc., and identify the key features they offer like wishlists, ratings, reviews, easy checkout, alternative payment options, and more. Analyze what features they have, what works well, and what doesn't. Determine which features you want to incorporate into your own website. 

Choose website name, domain, hosting#

Your website and domain name should be easy to spell, pronounce, and remember. For instance, “.com” is one of the most popular extensions for websites that’s also easy to pronounce. When it comes to e-commerce, certain newer domain extensions can prove just as effective such as “.store,” “.gift,” “.shop,” “.supply,” etc. Additionally, choose a reliable hosting provider that offers good uptime, speed, and security. Purchase a domain name and hosting plan that fits your budget.

Choose the right platform#

Choosing the right technology stack for your e-commerce application is one of the key decisions that you'll have to make early on. Though plenty of web development frameworks are available, you need to be careful in selecting the appropriate framework based on your requirements, budget, ease of use, and functionality. Consider the platform's features and scalability as well. To get started, check out these popular content management systems (CMS):

• WordPress: The most versatile and widely used CMS with plenty of customization options.

• Shopify: A popular e-commerce platform ideal for drop-shippingA business model to run your business without any physical location to store or process products. businesses.

• Squarespace: The best choice for those who want to build e-commerce applications but have limited or no coding background.
  

Customize a prebuilt e-commerce web template or hire a developer#

Once the appropriate technology stack has been carefully chosen, it is common for business owners to consider building e-commerce web applications from scratch. However, it is strongly advised against reinventing the wheel, meaning that instead of starting from scratch, it is recommended to select an existing template that aligns with the specific needs of your business and target audience. While the template design may not perfectly match your requirements, you can always customize it to achieve the desired look and feel. 

You can use free templates to start with. However premium templates allow you to customize easily without the help of a developer. Normally, the price of the premium template depends upon the platform such as Wordpress, Wix, Shopify etc.

If you are not comfortable with template customization, then you should hire a developer. If you do, find a reliable web developer who specializes in e-commerce application development. Hiring a developer can be expensive and time consuming but you’ll get exactly what you want.

If you are new to programming and want to learn how to code but don’t know where to begin? Take hands-on online courses with Educative! Educative's Learn to Code vertical is for beginners with no programming experience. Master the core problem solving and computer science skills that you’d learn in a bootcamp or university program in a fraction of the time.

Add your products#

Okay! We are now getting closer to completing our e-commerce web application. We should now start adding products to the platform. Each product should be added with its essential details such as the product name, description, high quality images, price, size, and available units in the inventory. Moreover, all the products should be organized in categories so that users can easily find the products they're looking for.

Set up payment options#

One of the most important features of an e-commerce web application are payment options. Selecting a payment method is harder than it appears.Without a smooth and seamless payment process, an online store would not be able to deliver value to the customer, and may end up losing the customer and getting bad reviews. While payment processing involves many steps but as a business owner it’s our responsibility to provide a smooth and seamless experience to the customer.

Many payment gateways are available. When selecting the payment options for our e-commerce website, we should consider security, reliability, availability in the location, and potential fit for our business. A good tip is to never rely on a single payment option, and always offer multiple payment options that have a direct impact in boosting your online store sales.

Add your contact information#

Adding contact information like phone number, email address, location to the e-commerce application is important because it provides an opportunity to improve your customer services and may help attract new customers.

Setup shipping mechanisms #

Everything we have discussed so far has focused on providing a good experience to the customer, but shipping is the final phase where customers actually get to experience your customer services. Shipping is also one of the most expensive steps in an online business, since major expenses can be incurred depending on the shipping methods used. Without a reliable shipping service, customers may face delays in product delivery or damage product, ultimately leading to customer dissatisfaction and negative reviews.

Various shipping strategies and options are available in the market, but we need to choose according to the range of our products, customer types, and business finance. Similar to the payment options, you should integrate various shipping mechanisms into your e-commerce application, and test their end-to-end service before launching your website.

Test and deploy your web application#

Testing refers to the quality check of the web application from various aspects like interface, functionality, security, performance, etc. An e-commerce application should pass through several phases of development, and ultimately goes through a testing phase to ensure that the web application works as per the requirements. Rigorous website testing is very important for business reputation because web applications with bugs like broken links, blurry images, delayed responses, erroneous data, etc. don't inspire cusotmers confidence. 

Deployment of an e-commerce application refers to the fact that the web application is publicly available for customers. It is highly recommended to test the application before going live with it since it will directly impact the customer experience, ultimately deciding the success or failure of the business.

Market and promote your e-commerce web application#

Starting an online business using e-commerce web applications is quite expensive in terms of time and money. However, millions of e-commerce websites are available in the marketplace. Why should someone use your e-commerce application instead of any other application? How can you draw customers' attention to your new products? These questions should be asked by the business owners to themselves, and marketing is the only tool that can provide answers to these questions.

After testing and deployment of your e-commerce application, you need a solid marketing strategy to bring and sell our products successfully. Without marketing, it would be very challenging and hard to make money from your online business. Nowadays, people use social media to market their products. Furthermore, people integrate their web applications with other marketplaces like Google, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, etc. However, it's not necessary to integrate with every platform. Select the platforms that align with your brand the most, and then establish those integrations and conduct thorough testing before launching. Also, consider paid advertising to drive traffic to your website.

Conclusion and next steps#

In conclusion, building an e-commerce web application takes time and effort, but it's entirely possible to create a successful online store that generates revenue and provides a great user experience. Essential steps include incorporating powerful features and customer feedback into a well-designed interface, choosing the right platforms, developing a minimum viable product, testing the app with real users, optimizing search engine ranking, and implementing effective marketing strategies to attract and retain customers. To start your coding journey, start learning to code with Educative!

If you already have a basic understanding of coding and web development frameworks such as React, and you're interested in building an e-commerce application completely from scratch, then this React and GrphQL course is just for you. It will guide you through the complete process of developing and launching your application.