Website Development for Ecommerce: Process & Overall Cost

Thanks to the emergence of e-commerce platforms, most shopping activities take place online. Thereby, businesses have the opportunity to bring customers a fast and seamless buying experience; at the same time, can expand sales channels, improve revenue and brand recognition. The existence of Ecommerce channels is becoming an important factor that can determine the success of businesses. However, how to build an effective and professional e-commerce website? Let’s explore with Pando Infinity the process of website development for ecommerce and the cost of this process in the article below.

I. What is Ecommerce?

Online business, also known as Ecommerce, is the act of doing business, exchanging and buying services and goods over an electronic means on the Internet.

Ecommerce operates in four main market segments and can be conducted on laptops, tablets, phones and other smart devices. It is also involved in transferring data and cryptocurrencies between two or more parties. Simply put, it’s where online shopping is as popular today.

II. Popular Ecommerce business models in Vietnam

Different Ecommerce websites are named and commonly used based on the function they fulfill.

Popular e-commerce business models in Vietnam:

• B2B model: Business to Business – the electronic transaction of goods and services between companies.
• B2C model: Business to Consumer – electronic transactions of goods and services between companies and consumers.
• C2C model: Consumer to Consumer – trading goods and services between consumers, mainly through third parties.
• C2B model: Consumer to Business – a form of business in goods and services in which individuals provide products or services to companies.

Providing goods and services is not as easy as you think. It requires a lot of research on the products and services you want to sell, the market, your audience, the competition, as well as the expected business costs.

III. Overview of Ecommerce Website

Ecommerce websites are websites serving trade promotion, sales and product supply activities. Currently, there are two types of e-commerce websites: online stores of businesses and Ecommerce platforms.

Enterprise Ecommerce website

A business’s Ecommerce website is a business’s online store, selling only its products and services. This is where businesses have the right to set up the entire process of buying and selling goods and services. The entire commercial process is carried out through the e-commerce website managed by the enterprise. This is also the place to promote the brand and increase the business’s reputation. Some of the benefits of an e-commerce website include:

• You have full control over your website: from design, process, integration, customization to user experience…
• Implement personalized marketing and promotion strategies: With this form, businesses can organize and use their own data to reach out to their customers without depending on a third party.
• Integration and optimization: Open source e-commerce websites like Magento, WooCommerce… allow websites to integrate with payment, order management, inventory and even management integration with e-commerce platform
• No intermediaries: With this form, businesses only lose the initial fixed costs and maintenance costs if incurred. In addition, businesses do not lose any monthly costs or costs on revenue for third parties. This helps businesses to optimize the profits.

Ecommerce platform

This form allows different businesses, organizations and individuals to open online stores and trade. Here, businesses can create a booth based on a fixed template of the e-commerce platform. Some brokers now even use a fixed carrier, designated by the exchange. Benefits of an e-commerce platform:

• Large and diverse customers: This is the customer base of the e-commerce platform with a large number and rich audience. This makes your store accessible to more people. However, this also means that the competition rate is very high among businesses in the same industry. In addition, this may not be the target customer group of the business, and the business does not have information about these customers.
• High popularity: According to iPrice’s report, e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, Tiki… often have higher visits than e-commerce websites. So, if the business is willing to pay for the floor to participate in campaigns, put banners, it is likely that the business will be known more.

Thanks to these benefits, e-commerce platforms will be more suitable for small businesses, micro and small businesses, helping to increase brand recognition. For larger businesses, they can use the platform as a secondary e-commerce channel.

III. Features of Ecommerce website:

Converting from an old website to a professional Ecommerce website is a trend that attracts many businesses today. The features of a professional Ecommerce website contain:

Intuitive, quality images and videos

Visual images or videos of products are very important because visual and quality images/ videos are what customers want to see first when searching on an e-commerce website. Therefore, the websites should have the function of displaying visual images with fast loading speed so that customers do not have to wait.

Provide fast and accurate information

An advantage of an e-commerce website is that it provides customers with products’ information more quickly and accurately than a regular sale website.

On large commercial websites, businesses will set up a very clear and scientific website structure so that buyers can easily find the right product as quickly as possible. That structure is integrated with search filters to clearly categorize levels such as filtering by price, popularity, product material, size, etc. That’s why customers’ shopping experiences will become much simpler.

Easily interact with sellers

The feature of an e-commerce website that will make customers feel loved again is the easy two-way interaction between the seller and the buyer. Because professional commercial websites are now equipped with online chat tools, a great feature for businesses to consult and support customers in the fastest way.

In addition, e-commerce websites that integrate discussion, question and answer features and product reviews directly on the website have also contributed to helping businesses quickly build trust from customers. Besides, they can also easily see the best-selling products of the business so that they can learn more.

Various payment methods

Today, the payment method in cash will almost be replaced by payment via bank card, QR code, and transfer in a very fast and modern way. The diversity in payment methods is also a feature and also a great advantage of e-commerce websites as it has helped create the most favorable conditions for both buyers and sellers.

IV. Process of website development for Ecommerce

Creating an e-commerce website is already difficult, but creating an effective and high-converting website is even more difficult. Here are some basic steps for businesses who want to build a website but don’t have much experience:

4.1. Choose the right domain name for your business

Businesses must choose a domain name (web address) that is suitable for their website. One note for businesses is to choose a short, easy-to-remember domain name. In particular, the domain name should have the business name or reflect the product and location of the business.

4.2. Ideas and plans to build an ecommerce website

At this point, businesses need to clarify their requirements with an e-commerce website. To easily identify a need with a website, businesses can answer the following questions:

• How many products does the business need to sell on the website?
• Which features should be integrated on the website (card payment, e-wallet payment, delivery, …)?
• What is the buying journey on e-commerce websites that businesses want?
• Do businesses need to integrate existing systems with e-commerce websites?
• How do businesses want to choose a theme for their website?

Above are some examples of questions businesses can ask to define a clear plan to make website implementation easier. This plan needs the participation and evaluation of e-commerce-related departments such as marketing, IT, sales, operations, management…. to ensure the website is most effective.

4.3. Website development for Ecommerce

After determining the requirements and plan, business should start building the website as soon as possible. At this step, you can consider using an internal team (if any) or find a professional development service provider.

Website development with in-house team

For businesses with their own IT team who are capable of building an e-commerce platform, this is a very good way to do it. Designing your own e-commerce website helps businesses have full control, track progress, project quality and can easily communicate directly.

Use services from a reputable e-commerce website development company 

An e-commerce website is a place for customers to look at and assess the credibility and trustworthiness of the business. Moreover, the website of the business is also a place to promote the brand. Therefore, if you do not have enough expertise, it’s better to seek help from a reputable web development company.

Technology companies, especially technology companies specializing in e-commerce with high expertise and experience, will understand the requirements of the business and offer more optimal advice for the plan.

For example, agencies can suggest to businesses which platforms are appropriate for their needs, which themes will be optimal for the industry, and the easiest ways to integrate.

4.4. Test built-in features

Before putting into use, businesses need to carefully check the basic information required such as business information, introductory articles, and products that the business is selling. Then check the features to see if all the requirements have been released. This will help customers get the best experience when using your website.

4.5. Operate and continue to optimize the website

Promote your business through social networks, search engines on Google so that customers know the appearance of the e-commerce website. After a period of operation, businesses need to check, fix and upgrade their website to attract potential customers and retain loyal customers for the business.

V. Overall costs of website development for Ecommerce

Currently, there are many e-commerce website development companies, in addition to the diverse services that come with it. The variety of services often comes with many costs to pay when developing an e-commerce website.

To design an e-commerce website, there are  2 ways that business can consider:

Ecommerce website development package

• Suitable for small and medium businesses just starting to get acquainted and set up a website of their own.
• Businesses can choose between available packages from the provider. The developer will develop your website according to the template that you have chosen. Using a website package will help businesses get a complete website, without having to waste time in website design.
• As the design packages are already available, construction and operating costs will be significantly cheaper for businesses.

Custom website development for Ecommerce

• When businesses want to design a website on demand, this will make the use and operation slower than using a full package. In return, the company will have the right website that fully meets what they want. In addition, it is easier to customize the tasks in the website yourself.
• Website development on demand requires highly qualified programmers. Therefore, businesses will have to pay a higher price than using the available package from the provider.

E-commerce website development costs can range from millions to hundreds of millions (depending on requirements and website size). 

VI. The best website development company

Contact Pando Infinity today if you are looking for the best website development company that can provide the most high-rated full services with reasonable cost based on specific e-commerce website construction needs of your business. Our end-to-end services include:

– Research & Consulting

– UX/UI Design

– Back-End Development

– Front-End Development

– Deploy & Maintenance

– QA & Testing

Moreover, the staff at Pando Infinity not only have high expertise and experience in the field of website development. In the meantime, they are constantly learning and absorbing new knowledge, techniques and applications to bring customers more useful features on the web.

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