How to Build an E-Commerce Website From Scratch?

Are you wondering how to build an e-commerce site from scratch?

Let’s assume that you currently don’t have many offerings for your e-commerce store. If that’s the case, you can set up everything quickly and launch your site in just one or two days.

Building an e-commerce website isn’t necessarily have to be a daunting process. Instead, it is less challenging than you expect it to be. Many e-commerce platforms are specifically designed for newbies, and even for those who have no coding experience at all.

In this blog, we’ll cover everything that can help you build an e-commerce website. And most importantly, we have composed essential steps required for building an e-commerce site.

Why it is important to develop an e-commerce website from scratch?

No doubt, website builders serve many benefits. Still, you must develop an e-commerce website from scratch. Here are some reasons why:

• Not all website builders are designed specifically for e-commerce platforms.
• Some website builders create issues while scaling the business online.
• It requires extensive coding experience and technical know-how.
• Some offer a limited set of functions and features.
• Design choices can be limited to what the tool offers.
• Other expenses like hosting, domain, plugins, apps, etc. are still needed.

What are the benefits of e-commerce website development from scratch?

Custom e-commerce websites are created to meet the specific needs and requirements of a business. Additionally, it can help you handle loads of traffic and apply a user-friendly interface.

Other than these, there are some additional benefits of e-commerce website development if you develop it from scratch. Let’s have a look!

• Helps in expanding and scaling the e-commerce store
• Fixes bugs quicker and easier
• Custom covers your specific business needs
• Ability to create unique designs instead of templates
• Offers unlimited functionality of your website
• Easy website maintenance
• Feature of adding unlimited functionalities
• Optimize load times effectively
• Ability to pick the best hosting services

What do you Need to Consider While Creating an E-Commerce Site?

Launching a website doesn’t only mean building an online store – it’s way more than that! There are a few things that you need to consider while creating an e-commerce site. Those are:

What products will you sell?

No doubt, your online store needs to have products that customers are willing to buy. You need to look for products that are high in demand such that it generates profits for your store.

If you aren’t still sure about where to begin, start with your interests or passions. That’s because you’ll already be knowledgeable about the products that you are selling. Also, cut down on the competition by focusing on a specific niche.

When you’ve selected your niche, research generously about the competition, hurdles, and gaps. Next, make a strategic decision about the products that you’re willing to sell through your e-commerce site.

How will you market your e-commerce store?

Before you get on the way to creating your online store, you need to strategize on how will you promote your e-commerce site. To create a map for this, you need to plan out how you can reach out to your ideal customers.

Also, consider researching the keywords for SEO and building your presence on different social media platforms. You can also go for paid forms of advertising like PPC which can help you grow sales tremendously.

This way, you can give a strategic approach to building your online store.

What is your budget?

Setting a budget before beginning to create an e-commerce site is the last important thing that you need to consider. That’s because you need to pay for a domain, hosting, as well as marketing for your site.

Some of the other costs include a custom theme, apps, SSL and security, and an expert developer that you hire for building your site.

Popular E-commerce Site Builders 

Some of the most popular options to build an e-commerce website from scratch are:

• Shopify
• Magento
• WooCommerce
• BigCommerce

Let’s have a look at its comparison such that you can get a better understanding of all website builders.

Now, let’s talk about each e-commerce website builder separately!

Shopify

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce site builders that offers any non-technical individual ease-of-use features and functionalities. Its monthly plan starts at $5 to $299, and it can extend beyond this for every sale you make.

You can even integrate thousands of apps from its app store for better functionality. You can get free apps too, but for premium functionality, you need to consider opting for premium apps.

Magento

Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform that allows merchants to build and manage their online stores. Currently, more than over 250,000 stores are operating on Magento.

It allows for the creation of customizable product pages, product management, and inventory tracking. It also provides a range of payment and shipping options and supports multiple languages and currencies.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a cloud-based e-commerce platform that allows merchants to create their online stores. Currently, there are more than over 60,000 active stores on it, which makes it an attractive option for businesses selling online.

It offers customizable storefronts, product management, and inventory tracking, as well as a range of payment and shipping options. BigCommerce also provides built-in marketing and SEO tools to help businesses attract customers and increase sales.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce platform that works collaboratively with WordPress. It is one of the popular Content Management Systems or CMS.

It allows for the creation of customizable product pages, product management, and inventory tracking. It also provides a range of payment and shipping options and supports multiple languages and currencies.

Simple Steps to Build an E-Commerce Site from Scratch

Building an e-commerce store isn’t challenging or time-consuming when you’re aware of what final product you require. Here are the steps that you need to follow to build e-commerce from scratch.

1. Perform Some Market Research

Conducting market and competitor research plays an important role in helping you understand what and how your competitors are doing. Also, get to know their marketing strategies.

If they are performing quite well in the online market, try to find out the reasons behind it. Additionally, get to know their pricing plans and product options that they may be offering to their customers.

Lastly, research the payment gateway and shipping methods that they might be offering to their prospective customers. Once you get answers to all the queries, draft a plan by keeping in mind the research and outcome.

2. Decide a Domain Name

Go for a domain name that’s short, simple, and easy to type and remember. Also, avoid all the domain names with close similarities since it can result in loss of traffic and revenue.

You must check the availability of your selected domain name using a tool such as Instant Domain Search. If you see that the selected domain name isn’t available to you, go for another domain name.

Here are some pro tips for choosing one perfect domain name:

• Keep it under 20 characters
• Don’t include creative spelling
• Avoid generic names
• Choose a domain name with a broader sense

Once you’ve decided on a domain name, the next and most important step you need to do is purchase it from a domain registrar.

3. Choose a Site Builder

Today, you’ve plenty of options available when it comes to choosing platforms for your website. Before you finalize anyone, go for demos and determine the perfect fit for your business website.

Some CMS platforms offer us many tools and extensions, consider them too while choosing a platform. Also, set your budget prior to selecting a plan and go through the reviews.

Some most popular website builders include Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce. If you ask us about our preferences, we love Shopify!

Well, that’s because its plans are decent, and it is super easy to build a website using this platform. Additionally, it has the best support team which implies that they are available 24/7, and ready to help us!

Still, if you’re confused between all the website builders, go through the above comparison table and choose one platform according to your preferences.

4. Select a Theme

The next important step is to pick a perfect theme for your e-commerce website. A theme is a template that enables your store to give a professional and consistent look and feel.

There are some of the factors that you need to consider while picking a perfect theme for your e-commerce store, which include:

• Ideal for displaying your offerings
• Faster load times
• Mobile-friendly
• Easier to use
• Good reviews
• Pricing plans

Most website builders offer you the option of integrating the theme with your website with just some clicks. Depending on the website builder and theme, you can easily customize the look and feel of your e-commerce store.

5. Add Product Photos & Description

Your offering’s photos and descriptions play an important role to build an e-commerce store. Your visitors won’t be able to try out or feel your products before buying.

So, replicate this by uploading high-resolution pictures and detailed descriptions of your offerings. Additionally, showcase the pictures from multiple angles and dimensions. You can even add a video demo for your visitors.

While you create titles or descriptions, remember to use keywords since it can help boost the rankings.

You need to describe your products clearly and images should showcase their value. The pictures and descriptions must be in a manner that shines amongst your competitors and encourages the visitors to convert into customers.

6. Create Other Pages

No doubt, your store is itself the rising star of the e-commerce industry, but still, you need to create other pages for the website. These include:

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Shipping
• Return Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions

You can also add a FAQ page, a sizing guide for your apparel website, a blog page, or even a news release page. For every new you build, ensure that you add a Meta description and URL.

Many site builders offer to add new pages simpler and faster. From there, you can easily add text and media according to your business niche.

If you still aren’t sure of which pages, to begin with, begin with about us, contact us, and the Terms & Conditions page. Also, you can research what more pages you can add to your e-commerce site.

7. Set up Payment Processing

Lastly, you need to set up a payment processing method. For that, you need to connect your e-commerce site to PayPal, Stripe, or both. Alternatively, you can use Shopify payments too.

Before you make your store live, ensure that you test it properly such that you know it performs well. Once you become all ready to accept the payments, it is now time that you to launch and promote your e-commerce store.

Bottom Line

Before you work on anything else, pat yourself with praise on the back. You’ve now completed a crash course and know how you can build your e-commerce store from scratch!

But unfortunately, your job isn’t over here. You need to work on the steps mentioned above in the blog to build an e-commerce website.

What’s next?

It is now the time that you look into marketing your e-commerce site such that you generate traffic, leads, sales, and conversions to your site. If you want to generate good revenue for your online store, start with SEO.

If you found this article helpful, please take a moment and share your experience with us in the comment section. Also, if you need more help from us, contact us directly. We’ll be happy to guide you!