Ecommerce Web Development Process begins with Planning

The ecommerce web development process does not always follow specific steps and stiff, as each project has its own peculiarities and we must acclimatize to them consequently.
Ecommerce Web Development Process
Ecommerce Website Development Process
Here we aren't covering the type of shopping carts, no. of payment gateways, and use of shipping methods, you may go for. This is actually a back-end database driven process that runs after integrating these system to front-end, a design made by html, css etc.

Despite making the things easier, we can say that there are some steps already defined. In general, it can be useful if you keep on building any website.

Let's see them in details:

Planning:
To begin you must decide what target audience the website is looking for. This is vital, because the designs and contents depend on this. You may have some questions that we can answer before starts planning, There are…Is ecommerce website targeted for children or adults? Do you access the public Internet from work, from school or from home? How fast is your Internet connection? Do they want to be informed or entertained? Be sure to answer these questions from the start for your website.

Website Architecture:
The website should be well structured, both for the benefit of visitors and for easy maintenance. Plan the website on a slat or schematic, flow diagram type. In this step, you are going to make a map of the site and the ecommerce development agenda.

Do not forget that you should plan website to make a change so that it doesn’t look so simple since most of the websites are constantly changing and well planned website simplifies this process.

Graphic Design:
In this step with the information already collected in the previous steps you design the look of the website, it is important not to confuse the graphic design for web sites that used to print and other areas because of technical limitations (and opportunities) web pages are foreign to most designers trained in other media. The file size requirements, limitations of color and screen resolutions are very different from those that are printed. This is front-end areas and will be designed nicely to encourage more visitors.

Website Programming:
In this way the project has been well defined and the ecommerce graphic design process already completed. Now the application program and the database to join it with the design of the interface as defined previously. This is something like back-end programs that manages your website behind the screen.

Quality control:
All web design professional should have this step in the process, is very important to test the website application exclusively designed to make sure that no errors. The website should be passed through all the web testing process.

Hosting and maintenance:
This step often depends on the type of project, but for a complete project you choose a good hosting provider that includes the ultimate in speed and stability, e.g. Unix / FreeBSD, PHP, Apache, and MySQL. 
Every website needs constant maintenance. Do not make the mistake of assuming that once you are online, everything is already done. If you want people to return to your site, you must add new material to your website, email to respond, and maybe links to update usage statistics that follow. For a small site, this can take a while as little as two or three hours a month.

Maintaining a large site can be a full time job, so you have to consider the cost of constant maintenance within your budget. Working with the same people ensures consistency, a new company or person not have the same working knowledge of your website, so keep satisfying your returning visitors.

I hope this will be useful; we are also consulting on Yahoo Store design and development with a user centric approach mainly focusing usability and information architecture.

Ecommerce in 2013: Selling More with New Tech and Device

Don't look back in 2012 for ecommerce, it is set to grow exponentially in 2013, what with the advent of mobile devices that make online shopping instant, fun, and too easy. Your regular site is also all set to reap the benefits of the new technology that helps you sell more from your e-commerce store.

What technology can ecommerce business owners turn into the best shopping experience for their customers?

Here are few technologies you should invest in for achieving your objectives in 2013:

Advanced Search: The technology that makes available millions of search results at the click of a button was already available. Now you need technology that presents a comprehensive list of product names as well as related products right there in the drop down suggestions from the search box. Your search box can offer thumbnail images, categories, product details, and pricing in the description for each result. Help your customer shop easily with advanced search capabilities.

Field Validation in the Checkout Form: Imagine a customer’s frustration when he/she must fill out all the fields in the checkout form all over again because one of the fields could not be validated. Validation capabilities integrated into the form itself will simply alert the user to fields that could not be validated. The user can just fill in appropriate information and proceed through checkout. No need to fill in the details all over again, no matter how few fields are used.

Real-time Inventory: Customers are also frustrated when they reach the product page and find that the color, model, or size of the product they want is not available. To prevent such a situation, the products pages themselves can carry information on the exact items available in the store. You can even provide an idea about when the out-of-stock products will be available.

Product Videos: There are plenty of ecommerce features to communicate the look and feel of your products to your customer. Product zoom and animation are some of the other such features. But they are no match for short videos on the product page that can be re-sized to fit the screen. Short videos will load fast and convey an accurate idea of the product to the shopper.

As the year progresses, we are likely to see a plethora of new features introduced for e-commerce stores. It is important to keep tabs on new features offered by ecommerce development services providers. Keep your eyes peeled and your e-commerce store updated with the latest and best features for your customers. It will prove to be a worthy investment. 

Watch space for more in-store features....