Building an ecommerce website is no easy feat. It requires a great deal of planning and strategy, from the visual design to shipping strategies to payment gateways integration. However, once you have your strategy in place, the rest should fall into place quite easily. After all, you’re creating a digital version of your brick-and-mortar business that visitors can instantly access from anywhere at any time. So, it only makes sense that you give your ecommerce site the attention it deserves in order for it to function at its optimal capacity. In this article, we’ll discuss how building an effective ecommerce site framework will serve as the foundation upon which your online store is built. We’ll also look at some of the common ecommerce site challenges and walk you through steps on how to prevent them in future projects.
What Does An Ecommerce Website Framework Do?
An ecommerce website framework acts as a blueprint for your entire ecommerce site. It outlines all of the core elements of an ecommerce site, like the navigation, content, and functionality. This makes it easier for developers and designers to jump right in and create a functional ecommerce site without having to start from scratch each time. Having a framework in place can also help improve the overall design of your site, making it look cleaner and more organized. Once you have a framework in place, you can also test different layouts and themes to see what works best for your specific site. An ecommerce website framework is the backbone of your entire ecommerce site. It outlines the navigation structure, content, and functionality of your site. This allows developers and designers to get started on your site without having to start from scratch each time. Having a framework in place can also help improve the overall design of your site, making it look cleaner and more organized.
Types of Ecommerce Websites
Ecommerce websites come in all shapes and sizes. From large-scale e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, to niche marketplaces like Etsy, there are a variety of options for businesses of all sizes. For ease of comparison, we’ll discuss the most common types of ecommerce websites below. – Direct Retail: A direct retail website handles all sales to consumers through brick-and-mortar stores. Direct retail sites are usually powered by an ecommerce platform, like Shopify or Bigcommerce. – eMarketing / eCommerce: An ecommerce or “online commerce” website carries retail merchandise, like clothing, furniture, and electronics. An ecommerce site can also host events and sell tickets for concerts and events. – Dropshipping: A dropshipping business sells products through an external supplier that has inventory stored in its warehouse. This is often used with retailers who do not have a large enough inventory to ship everything on their own. – Hybrid ecommerce: A hybrid ecommerce site is a combination of direct retail and ecommerce models. A hybrid ecommerce site can handle sales to consumers and through third-party retailers. – Omnichannel: A website that serves as both a lead generation platform and an online shopping cart can be classified as an omnichannel strategy. An omnichannel strategy aims to provide customers with a single online experience, regardless of the channel they use to shop. – Fulfillment: An ecommerce platform that handles all the inventory and order fulfillment is called a fulfillment center. Some ecommerce platforms also offer a hybrid fulfilment option.
Strategies to keep in mind while building an ecommerce website
There are many different strategies to keep in mind while building an ecommerce website. These include things like the overall structure of your ecommerce site, visual design, and content strategy. To get the most out of your ecommerce site, it’s important to keep these strategies in mind from the beginning. – Keep navigation easy to use and discover: Customers often visit your ecommerce site for one reason only, which is to make a purchase. Keeping this in mind, you want to make sure that you keep your navigation as simple as possible. Remember, navigation is the backbone of your entire ecommerce site and should be kept as simple and easy to use as possible. You can also add “breadcrumbs” at the bottom of your site that tell visitors where they are and where they can go next. – Keep content focused and relevant: Another important strategy to keep in mind while building your ecommerce site is to keep the content focused and relevant. A cluttered and confusing website will only frustrate and confuse your potential customers. It’s important to keep the content strategy in mind while building your ecommerce site, as well as the visual design, in order for your site to function properly.
How to identify ecommerce site challenges
There are many ways to identify challenges that may arise while building an ecommerce site, but the most effective is to break your project into phases, starting from the strategy and navigation design. Once you have a clear idea of what you want your ecommerce site to deliver, you can start to identify any challenges that may arise. Below are some of the common challenges you may come across during the ecommerce site development phase. – Too many options: A website that is overly complex and confusing will only serve to frustrate and confuse your potential customers. Even the slightest complexity on a website will cause users to click away. You want to keep your ecommerce site as simple and straightforward as possible, while still carrying the necessary functionalities. – Inconsistent navigation: Ecommerce navigation is one of the most important aspects of any site. While it might not seem so, it’s actually one of the most difficult aspects of any site to implement successfully. When you start to identify challenges that arise during the navigation design process, you may realize that you’re not designing your navigation correctly. – Inconsistent store layout: Another challenge that you may come across during the navigation design process is when you start to notice inconsistencies between the visual design and the store layout.
Negotiate and Select an Ecommerce Web Development Agency
There are many development companies out there that claim to create an ecommerce website framework. However, you want to make sure that the eCommerce web development agency you choose has experience creating ecommerce websites. This is crucial for the framework to function properly and effectively. Another important thing to keep in mind is what type of ecommerce platform you would like your platform to handle. For example, many developers choose to build their ecommerce site on a Direct Retail platform like Shopify. However, this usually requires you to use tools like Facebook to create a store. Depending on your business goals, you may want to consider building your ecommerce site on a more robust ecommerce platform.
Conclusion
Building an ecommerce site isn’t an easy feat. It requires a great deal of planning and strategy, from the visual design to shipping strategies to payment gateways integration. However, once you have your strategy in place, the rest should fall into place quite easily. After all, you’re creating a digital version of your brick-and-mortar business that visitors can instantly access from anywhere at any time. So, it only makes sense that you give your ecommerce site the attention it deserves in order for it to function at its optimal capacity.
