The Importance of Ecommerce Web Development

Is your business’s website set up to make purchases as efficient as possible? Are customers able to make purchases at all?

In 2016, 58.3 percent of global internet users had purchased products online. By 2019, this number is expected to grow to 63 percent! If your business doesn’t have an eCommerce website, you’re missing out on tons of potential sales!

When it comes to running a successful eCommerce website, you need to take your web development seriously. By working with an experienced web developer who specializes in eCommerce sites, you’ll ensure that your business sees long-term success.

Keep reading to learn more about the importance of eCommerce web development for your business’s online success.

What Is eCommerce Web Development?

eCommerce websites allow customers to make online purchases online. And, web development is the process of building and customizing websites. So, eCommerce web development is all about building a website from which customers can purchase goods or services.

A good eCommerce web developer is essential to your online business’ success. They won’t just build your eCommerce website. They’ll also make sure that it runs efficiently and gives your customers a good shopping experience.

Why Is It Important?

Our world is more now digitally focused than ever before, and it doesn’t show any signs of moving backward.

Customers will probably take their business elsewhere if your website isn’t set up to allow them to easily purchase your products or services from the comfort of their own homes.

Everyone loves the convenience of online shopping. eCommerce web development provides the ultimate level of convenience to customers. When your eCommerce site is designed to make online shopping as convenient as possible, you’re guaranteed to see an increase in sales.

eCommerce web development also allows you to spread your business’s message further than ever. Hopping on the eCommerce train means you’re not limited by proximity. With the help of quality web development, you can share your products or services with people all over the world!

What’s Included in Good eCommerce Web Development?

Listed below are some of the most important aspects of good eCommerce web development. These characteristics will ensure you have a functional eCommerce website that your customers will be eager to return to.

Responsive Design

A good eCommerce website will work just as well on a mobile device as it does on a desktop. This is especially important since more than one-fourth of eCommerce sales happen from a mobile device.

You’ll need to make sure that your website has a responsive design if you want to increase sales and keep your customers happy. Listed below are some of the main characteristics of a good, responsive website design:

Compatible with various devices
Fluid and flexible grids that keep page elements proportional
Works with a mouse or touchscreen
Good download speed and graphics display

Supporting Guest Checkouts

Many eCommerce websites require customers to create an account before they make a purchase. This is helpful for businesses to communicate with customers post-sale. But, it can also be annoying for customers and may turn them off to the website altogether.

That’s why the ability to check out as a guest is so important. Sometimes, people just want to make their purchase quickly and go.

If you still want to encourage users to create an account, consider letting them check out as a guest first. Then, give them the option to create an account after the purchase using the information they just entered.

Site Search

It’s important that you make it easy for potential customers to search your eCommerce site to find what they’re looking for. To make it even easier, utilizing features like autocomplete will also be helpful for visitors.

Another important feature is faceted search, which allows visitors to find what they need faster. It works by narrowing down their search in a variety of ways, including by department, size, price range, manufacturer, etc.

Security

Think about it: when your customers make a purchase from your website, they’re giving you a lot of information and putting a lot of trust in you as a business. You need to make sure people know their information is safe. This is especially true if you want them to continue to make purchases and give you their addresses and credit card numbers.

You need to make sure people know their information is safe. This is especially true if you want them to continue to make purchases and give you their addresses and credit card numbers.

All eCommerce websites should support SSL. This allows them to encrypt information — like credit card numbers — that needs to be kept secure. Website security is also required to meet Payment Card Industry compliance guidelines.

It’s a good idea to avoid storing credit card numbers in your site’s database. Keeping this information stored on your servers is a huge security risk. If your database is compromised, you’ll be liable.

Optimized Site Performance

Onsite optimization that leads to a good user experience is crucial. If your site is slow, you’ll probably lose customers. If a site takes too long to load (more than a few seconds), most users will abandon it altogether.

Some of the things that can optimize your site’s performance include:

Combine JavaScript or CSS resource files into single files
Compress images to reduce download times
Use caching to reduce time spent sending data between the web server and the database server

Search Engine Optimization

You’ll also need to make sure that your eCommerce website is easy to find via search engines. There are lots of eCommerce SEO tips that you can follow to make this happen, including: