Are you a business owner and want to sell your products online? Do you wish to learn more about E-commerce website development? In this article we discuss things to consider for E-commerce website development.
We cover what businesses need to consider when they wish to sell their products on their own website.
What To Consider When Doing E-commerce Website Development
Choose A Platform for E-commerce Website Development
Platforms such a Shopify, BigCommerce or WooCommerce are very popular. Because of this we recommend going with one of these. It will save you time and money plus the majority of web developers are familiar with these platforms. This makes it easy when it comes to adding in payment processing and plugins.
For example WooCommerce is compatible with WordPress.
Decide On A Payment Gateway
It’s safe to say everyone is familiar with PayPal or Stripe as online payment methods. But in order to accept credit cards as payment, a gateway is needed. This also includes a credit card processor. These payment gateways accept credit cards, mobile payment and recurring billing. Examples include authorize.net and 2Checkout.com.
Other things to consider for payment gateways is how long it will take. Getting the approval for a credit card processor and a payment gateway will take some time. Before you can even apply you’ll have to set up a secure checkout process. You’ll also have to create a Privacy Policy and a Return Policy, have a working customer service phone number and email. Finally, you’ll need to figure out the shipping and delivery methods.
It doesn’t end there. You’ll also need to have a clean credit history, a government issued ID, federal tax ID and a bank account for where the funds will be deposited.
The reason why it takes so long is because the processors want to make sure your business is likely to be successful. They don’t want to take a big risk on a business that either doesn’t have any experience or seems like it’s going to be unsuccessful. In other words you have to prove to them that your business in worthwhile.
How Will You Store And Ship Your Inventory
There are many things you need to consider for shipping and storage options. Are you going to utilizing drop shipping? Will you store the inventory in a warehouse? What about USPS, UPS or FedE? Or what is the product going to be shipped in? What size packaging do you need? Do you need to consider any shipping restrictions? For example say it’s a beauty product but it can only be shipped via ground.
All of these questions need to be answered before anything is shipped out.
Starting an E-commerce website is a very detailed process. It will take a lot of work. By being proactive and not leaving things to the last minute, you will be well on your way to launching a successful E-commerce store. Or if you’re interested in hiring a professional, we’re more than happy to help.
