E-commerce Development

E-commerce Development

You can find the most effective e-commerce development for your business.

The digital environment has opened up new paths for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, increasing sales opportunities and fostering trust between them and consumers. As a result, e-commerce development has become a highly sought-after service, primarily because it increases revenue and offers more sales possibilities without the consumer needing to leave their home.

New e-commerce platforms have introduced significant advances, integrating your store with your company’s CRM, email marketing tools, and sales systems, helping to minimize errors such as stock shortages, product issues, and customer registration problems. More than ever, now is the time to invest in a new sales format.

However, concerns similar to those that physical store owners have should still be considered, such as stock, logistics, offers, and promotions. In addition, e-commerce needs specific attention to factors like shipping costs and partnerships with postal services or couriers to send products, as well as excellent online customer service.

Before E-commerce Development

If you already own a physical store, you know the importance of constantly studying and analyzing the market you operate in and how consumers behave. However, if you’re starting from scratch in the virtual world, these concerns are still vital. Before structuring a website, thoroughly study your industry. Website creation is the next step after this research.

It may seem simple to just say “study your sector,” but nowadays, there are many consumer studies and research available. Understanding your consumer is one of the most important steps in your market. Do you speak to geeky young adults? Read books on communication regarding behavior on social media, such as Participatory Culture, Convergence Culture, and Collective Intelligence.

If your sector is more technical, such as the industrial field, there are recent studies on B2B e-commerce. Paths exist, regardless of the audience you target.

After this general study of consumer behavior and relationships, think as a retailer. Who are your potential primary customers? Do you have suppliers to help you? Are your competitors ahead, or do they even exist? Gathering all this information helps you get a better sense of the steps you’re taking.

In more general studies, you can explore research from institutions like IBGE, Sebrae, Procon, Ebit, and even SPC Brazil, before making a decision without sufficient foundation. Don’t underestimate statistics and social science—they are crucial for business success, and understanding them carefully can contribute to the growth of your online store.

Steps in E-commerce Development

Before you get into coding, choosing platforms, and selecting a domain, it’s helpful to plan what features your online store should have. Not everything in e-commerce is strictly about direct purchases.

The site may include product categories, but it could also have sections dedicated to the company, side projects, research reports, blogs, and more. The goal is for you to think about a comprehensive virtual space for your business. Developers focus on these considerations when working on an e-commerce site.

E-commerce development is more intricate and meticulous than a standard institutional site, and for developers, the primary focus is user experience.

User Experience (UX)

User experience (UX) is essential for any digital product today, and e-commerce is no exception. If the user doesn’t feel confident in the environment, they’ll leave the site and abandon their cart without completing the purchase.

To avoid this, UX plays a crucial role in making the purchasing process easier. There are many ways to present purchasing steps, but for consumers, the following steps are key:

1. Navigate the site with ease (fast-loading pages, clear product categories).
2. Excellent search functionality, as users may not always go directly to a product page via Google.
3. Clear product pages with key information such as price, stock availability, and shipping cost calculation.
4. A smooth registration process when purchasing (minimal required fields but enough for correct delivery).
5. Option to return to the site and continue shopping before finalizing the purchase.
6. Ensure the payment environment is secure and inform users that details will be sent via email, with an easy-to-fill-out form.

These factors all contribute to UX. Even though there are standard e-commerce page templates, personalization is always possible, and thinking from the consumer’s perspective is key. Why is this even more important online than in a physical store?

In the digital world, your customer might not know you yet, or have never bought from you. They don’t know your face, your values, or your lifestyle. That’s why trust is built by making the site fast, user-friendly, and well-structured. If they like the first purchase experience, they’ll likely remember it for future transactions.

Responsive Website

Today, smartphones are small-scale computers, and their capabilities have grown exponentially. According to a study by SPC Brazil in July 2018, 74% of Brazilians use their smartphones at least once during their online shopping process.

Smartphones are used to search for products (32%), compare prices (28%), and even make payments and purchases (14%). These numbers are impossible to ignore—many people are searching and accessing your site via mobile.

E-commerce development shouldn’t just focus on desktop versions (computers or laptops); mobile is just as important. Different products and search behavior are considered by Google, so e-commerce on mobile should ideally perform better than on desktop.

A responsive website needs to be fast, easy to navigate, and fully optimized for smartphone screens. Any display issues on mobile are serious, as they can frustrate the consumer, causing them to leave the site and likely not return on desktop.

Losing a consumer online is effectively losing a sale, which means lost revenue.

Post-Sale and Customer Support

There’s still confusion about how to communicate through an online store. Communication doesn’t just happen after the sale when you need to deliver the product. It’s essential to have a comprehensive contact page—an efficient “contact us” section that guides customers on where to ask for help.

It’s advisable to have a FAQ page and clear information about how sales and deliveries work. A chat box can be a great addition since not every business has a full customer service department. Clearly state the hours of operation if you can’t offer 24/7 support.

You can also ask your development team (like WiFi Digital) to configure social media accounts (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), and even WhatsApp, to send automatic messages clarifying hours and available services.

After the sale, maintaining contact with the lead is valuable, as you likely have their email. Before being too persistent with email marketing, give customers the option to receive marketing content if they haven’t signed up for the newsletter.

This is where email marketing can be a great post-sale tool. We’ve discussed how email marketing is versatile, helping you reach specific groups of potential leads.

Creating a Secure Environment

Trust is a key factor in e-commerce development. Your online store needs to ensure security during the purchase process. Current e-commerce platforms have made significant progress in this area, preventing hackers from collecting customer data or accessing purchase history.

It’s important to make digital security evident on the site, whether in the footer or another area that clearly communicates the tools protecting customer data and purchases. Security certificates are also essential—make sure you understand them. Your consumer may not know your face, but they need to trust your security protocols.

Additionally, there are steps you can take to secure your site as a whole, protecting not only customer data but also your own business’s information. With so much public data on the internet, it’s something worth taking seriously.