When you’re planning to launch an eCommerce store, the only thing you'll think about more than your inventory is your website. Selling any product online requires a stellar site that provides a memorable shopping experience for your customers.
Everything from its design to its navigation must be perfectly laid out to ensure people have a seamless experience from start to finish, no matter what page they first land on.
Mobile optimization is the most important feature of a modern eCommerce site. With mobile purchases expected to hit $620.97 billion by 2024, there’s nothing more relevant for an eCommerce founder in 2022 than a responsive website.
Responsive sites are scalable, which means their layout (interface) changes automatically to suit a user’s screen size. Someone browsing your store on an iPhone will have the same experience as someone on a tablet or laptop.
What’s more, a mobile-optimized eCommerce store will have slight display changes to ensure that shopping is always easy and intuitive for a mobile user. Think about how a social media site looks on a desktop versus its app. The same logic applies to mobile eCommerce sites.
Mobile and desktop versions of your store will share a design and functionality, but their layout will differ. This makes it easy for users across devices to get the most intuitive and rewarding experience.
In this guide, we’ll cover how to build your own eCommerce site, including why you should look into a professional developer over a marketplace.
Is There a Difference Between Your Own eCommerce Site vs. a Marketplace Site?
There is a large difference between developing and hosting an eCommerce site and using a marketplace like Amazon. While marketplaces make it easy to start selling products right off the bat, they lack the customization, control, and creative liberty as your own website.
Marketplaces generate revenue by charging eCommerce vendors commission and other fees for each sale. This means you lose a percentage of potential profit every time a customer buys something from your store.
While some may not mind the fee in exchange for steady business, it ultimately hinders your growth.
Building your own site gives you complete control over your sales. You set the rates, and the only fees you need to pay are ones associated with order fulfillment. This leaves ample opportunity to scale and customize your sales packages to suit your consumers.
In a nutshell, here are the pros and cons of your own eCommerce site vs. a marketplace.
Pros of a Marketplace:
Easy to start with a small starting budget.
Established trust with the existing consumer base.
Simple interface for sellers to list products.
Cons of a Marketplace:
High competition among new vs. established sellers.
Commission and other fees that cut down your profit.
Lack of creative design and branding for your store.
Pros of Your Own Mobile eCommerce Store:
Complete control over the design and interface.
No fees on sales except the cost of fulfillment.
Personalization to create a one-of-a-kind shopping experience.
Ability to optimize sites for search engines and promote on social media.
Access to dozens of skilled developers and teams to build your website.
Cons of Your Own Mobile eCommerce Store:
Not easy to build without development skills.
Must learn how to host and run your site.
Have to build your client base from scratch.
More time is required to fulfill orders and provide customer service.
Ultimately, the advantages and potential to grow through your own eCommerce store make it a more profitable investment. Whether you’ve never sold online or are a seasoned veteran looking to set up a more permanent shop, getting your own eCommerce site isn’t as hard as you may think.
You don’t have to code anything, and you can hire a skilled team of professionals, or just one developer, to handle the technical sides of development.
Let’s explore three of the best options for developing your own mobile eCommerce store.
Hire a Team
A team of software and web developers, like us, can help eCommerce founders build their sites from the ground up. Teams have multi-faceted members with an array of talents. They use the latest technology and best practices in software and web development to bring your store to life.
With plug-ins, you can even create a hybrid model that fuses your original site with the features of another eCommerce platform, like Shopify.
A team can handle both the front-end and back-end aspects of your site. The front-end mobile eCommerce design includes everything users see on a page. Color, imagery, format, font, and layout are all rooted in strong front-end design and development.
Back-end design, on the other hand, refers to data and features that fuel your site. Aspects like secure payments, inventory management, and order fulfillment will be run by this part of the development team.
Hire a Freelance Developer
Freelance developers are another option for building your eCommerce site. They set their own rates, so you can compare costs to suit your budget. Freelance developers also have a range of skill sets, so some may offer more services than others.
For example, a front-end freelance web developer may only create the physical site but not integrate the eCommerce solutions you need to take and fill orders. In this case, you’ll need to know how to host the site and install plug-ins yourself or hire another developer with back-end experience.
Pay Per Project
Developers and teams often charge per hour or per project. Paying per hour may seem like a good idea if you’re on a budget, but $25 an hour x 10 hours of work will leave you with a $2500 bill. This may not be budget-friendly if you can purchase a web development package that’s $1500 somewhere else.
Hourly and project-based pricing models are common in the web development industry. We suggest using a per-project model that ensures you get the highest quality work for a set rate. The scope of the project will be clear from the start, and expectations are established to avoid any confusion or miscommunication.
The per-project model also helps you budget more effectively. Rather than get a ballpark estimate for how much your site will cost, you have a definitive figure to work with.
Experienced Web Developers On-Demand
At Jolifox, we offer teams, developers, and per-project models for eCommerce web development. Choose what suits you best, or contact us to speak with one of our experts. We can build you a custom package that respects your time and budget while realizing your vision for your store.
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