How to Set up a Custom eCommerce Website

These days, more and more people are doing their shopping by simply going online and purchasing their items from an eCommerce website, or store of their choice. Furthermore, most of these sales are being done via smartphones and mobile devices. This essentially means they can shop online from virtually any location with 24/7 access.

The convenience and ease of use of online shopping have led to a tremendous opportunity for businesses of all sizes to grow their target customers and increase their sales.

However, simply setting up an eCommerce store for your business is no guarantee that it will succeed. After all, even your average Joe can set up the simplest eCommerce website these days.

However, you probably already have potentially thousands of other competitors trying to gain your market share. That’s why our team of professional web development professionals specialize in making the most unique and polished eCommerce websites to set your business brand apart from the crowd.

Why you need custom eCommerce development services

Many business owners lack the technical skills and resources to give their online eCommerce website the full capabilities to become a competitive force in the market. When you hire our professional custom eCommerce development services at BlueMatrix Media, we make sure we have all your bases covered so you can focus on growing your business while we ensure it runs smoothly.

These are just some of the many benefits we can offer to your business when you work with our BlueMatrix team of professionals.

Make Sure Your Site Is Responsive

Nothing scares off potential customers faster than coming across a clunky-looking and hard-to-navigate eCommerce website when using a mobile device. Chances are, that sites like these lack a responsive website design.

Responsive website design ensures that pages will render well regardless of the screen and device being used.

They’re called responsive because once implemented, the web pages will actually detect, or respond to the device’s screen size and orientation, and will adjust its layout automatically so the user has a good experience navigating the site.

In addition to making your eCommerce site look good on any device, a responsive website design improves your page load speed, which is a plus for your SEO score.

Improve Your Ranking on Search Engine Results

No one’s going to care about your awesome looking eCommerce site unless they can actually find you online in their local search results. Luckily, you don’t have to depend on word-of-mouth referrals to your site (although they are still welcome!).

With so many online stores these days, it is getting more difficult to stand out from the crowd. This is why having a  solid SEO strategy is crucial for online success.

Having a good SEO ranking helps customers find you online and helps cut down your costs for paid web traffic and advertising. In addition, a successful SEO campaign can potentially keep bringing your site many benefits for years to come.

Create a Unique Website Design for Your Business

We all know that having a website design that shows off a unique and polished look will help add credibility to your business. These days, however, a great looking website must also have all the modern functionalities that improve the user’s experience while shopping on your site.

Our talented design team has the professional design skills and technical know-how to implement the necessary functionalities such as shopping carts, content-management capabilities and reporting tools, just to name a few.

Selecting the Right eCommerce Platform for Your Business

We all know that choosing the right eCommerce platform for your business is a critical business decision that will determine your long-term success. The problem is that there are lots of great platforms out there today, but not all of them have the right features and functionalities that benefits your particular business model.

Whether you’re considering upgrading your current eCommerce platform or looking for one that will jumpstart your business online as quickly as possible, there are many considerations that should be given serious thought. After all, once you throw your hat in the online arena, you’re going to want to establish professional credibility as soon as possible.

This means minimizing the guesswork as much as possible so you don’t look like a total amateur that your competitors can call you out on. To help you out, we are including a brief description of some of the most popular eCommerce platforms out there right now.

Each platform has its particular benefits and features but by comparing each platform you can get a good idea of what your own needs may be. Here are some common mistakes that business owners tend to make.

Not Understanding the Real Costs of Ownership

Sure, there are a lot of eCommerce platforms that will allow you to get up and running for free while you learn the ropes. However, as your business grows you will quickly see the limitations that free products offer.

On the other hand, you need to avoid (as much as possible) underestimating the costs of operating your chosen platform. If your customers are coming to your site and seeing that it is offline, it can be a real dealbreaker for them and they will go to your competitors in the blink of an eye.

Choosing the Wrong eCommerce Partner

It’s no secret that learning how to operate a brand new eCommerce website platform requires time and patience no matter how easy they market themselves to be. However, by choosing the right eCommerce platform provider they can really help your business mitigate the common risks that that online businesses face on a regular basis.

It’s always a good idea to interview eCommerce providers to ensure they understand your business and your requirements so that you can focus on running and growing your business.

Popular eCommerce Platforms

WooCommerce

WordPress is by far one of the most preferred content management systems that small and medium-sized can use to get their business online and at a low cost. By using the WooCommerce plugin, businesses can easily transform their ordinary website into a fully-functional eCommerce web store. Oh, and the plugin is free!

When you want to get your business online as quickly and as cost-effective as possible, WooCommerce is one of the best options you can use to start selling online quickly. This is why WooCommerce is currently used by 2 million eCommerce websites worldwide.

Although the plugin is free, there are a plethora of extensions and additional features you can purchase from third-party providers that can add useful functionalities to your website.

Shopify

Shopify is an excellent choice for businesses that prioritize quality and efficiency, yet still want to keep things simple but highly functional. Shopify is easy to set up and does not require any coding knowledge from its users. In fact, you don’t even need to worry about the hosting or the software to get your eCommerce store up and running.

Shopify stores come with many pre-packaged themes that make your store look professional and appealing. Want to add your own touch to the design? No problem! Shopify lets users add their own features and designs to suit their needs.

One of the most appealing benefits that Shopify offers its users is that its an eCommerce platform that offers excellent customer support and does most of the heavy lifting for you in terms of its appearance and marketing capabilities.

Magento

The Magento eCommerce platform currently powers over 250,000 eCommerce websites. It is an open-source solution that enables online businesses to grow, scale, and boost their overall business.

The platform is easy to set up, easy to use, and offers the excellent functionality that modern-day customers look for and appreciate. The platform comes SEO-ready right out of the box, so you can hit the ground running and be found online.

As an open-source platform, Magento keeps improving its features while innovating even more exciting functionalities to make the online shopping experience user-friendly and safe.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a popular eCommerce website platform choice due to its low-costs both in the immediate and long-term. If you’re a company that’s on a very limited budget, then BigCommerce offers an excellent way to get started with your online business while giving some peace of mind on the expenses side of the business.

Just because it’s a great low-cost solution it doesn’t mean it’s suitable just for small businesses or entrepreneurs. BigCommerce definitely delivers the goods in terms of ease of setup and overall ease of use.

Their customer support staff are among the best in the business and can help troubleshoot any issues that may affect your site.

One of the great distinguishing features of BigCommerce is its Content Syndication features which allow you to drive traffic from sites such as Shopzilla, Google’s product search engine and other shopping feeds.

At BlueMatrix Media, we take pride in being able to offer the best custom eCommerce website solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. We have been recognized as one of the Top eCommerce App Development Companies & Top eCommerce Web Design Companies. BlueMatrix Media is a full service, solutions-driven, Advertising Agency focused on growing your business! Contact us today to discuss our Web Design, SEO, PPC – SEM, Reputation Management & Social Media Marketing options.