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Research studies and business predictions show that over the next few years, ecommerce is expected to surpass $2 trillion in sales. Today ecommerce is one of the most valuable and fastest-growing industries. Thanks to ecommerce, customers can today pick up their favourite trouser or shoes or grocery online and receive the desired product directly at their doorstep. Managing the orders and getting them delivered at the customer's address is not an easy process. It involves a lot of planning and management; managing and running an ecommerce website is a time consuming and detailed process. A developer has to code the website, develop the content and each and every product has to be loaded individually on the website. How to build an ecommerce website and keep it alive and running is not an easy task.

How to build an ecommerce website? What are the steps to create an ecommerce website?

1. Purchase a domain name.

The first step is to purchase a domain name for your website, a name which will reflect your brand identity. Domain sites like GoDaddy, offer domain names for as low as $10.00.

2. Hire services of a professional web developer

If you do not have your own in-house development team, it is important you hire the services of a professional web developer, who can design and develop a good ecommerce website for your company. Determine the timeline and accordingly shortlist the ecommerce website development company after looking at their past project works. Try to hire services of a company which has a graphic designing background and who has past experience of developing websites on the ecommerce platform you choose.

3. Registration and Licensing

Before your website goes live, you need to get your business registered and obtain all the required licenses and permissions. A local attorney can assist you with all the paperwork and legal formalities involved in the formation of your business.

4. Select your website hosting platform

Select a popular ecommerce platform for hosting your website. Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce are some of the most popular and reliable ecommerce platforms you can choose from. We at QuickChilli also provide affordable web hosting services.  We will not only help you sell through your own website but also help you in selling through platforms like Facebook and Pinterest as well.

5. Choose your theme

Once you’ve shortlisted your hosting platform and domain, next you need to select the theme for your ecommerce website. Keep in mind that the theme you select aligns with your industry and the brand image you want to depict. For example, if you are dealing with fashion products, you would want to depict your brand image as modern and progressive, so you should opt for a modern and sleek theme.

6. Set up a secure checkout process and a payment gateway

Payments on ecommerce websites are made through various payment gateways like PayPal or Credit Card or Net banking. To get approval from a payment gateway and credit card processor, you will be required to set up a secure checkout process on your website. You will need to define a Privacy Policy and Return Policy. You will need to finalize your shipping methods and also have in place a contactable customer service phone number and email address.

Setting up of the payment gateway is a time-consuming process. It is advisable not to wait until the last minute for starting this process.

7. Packaging and Shipping Solutions

Before the website is launched, it is important that you decide on how you plan to manage the storage and packaging of the goods and inventory. How do you plan to ship and deliver the orders to your customers? You will need to tie up with delivery companies and storage warehouses that will be able to hold the stock for you and also dispatch and deliver them when the order is placed.

8. Going live

Once you decide to start an ecommerce business, it is important to get your site live with an about us and contact page. You can list your products later, but having information about the company and contact details helps in establishing legitimacy.

Which Website Builder is best for ecommerce?

Now that you are aware of the steps on how to build an ecommerce website, next you need to decide on which website builder is the best option for your website. If you are looking at building an online store with an ecommerce website builder, there are some good choices to take your pick from. Let us look at some of the best ecommerce website builders and learn about their pros and cons.

The top 5 best ecommerce website builders are:

Shopify: Thanks to its comprehensiveness, Shopify is the best ecommerce builder today. It has been designed and developed specifically for helping the development and building of online stores or ecommerce websites. It is loaded with features and facilitates selling through both the website and through other channels like Facebook, Amazon etc. It has more than 100 beautiful ecommerce website templates to choose from. They provide round the clock customer support. Shopify should be your first choice if you are a new entrant in the field of ecommerce. It can be described as the best all-round ecommerce platform.

Wix: Wix is a brilliant website builder, offering a large collection of professional, ecommerce website templates. You can build your online store on Wix with the help of an intuitive drag & drop interface. Wix is an extremely user-friendly platform which makes is the best ecommerce website builder with ecommerce functionality for small scale businesses and independent entrepreneurs.

BigCommerce: BigCommerce is a good option for your online business if you plan to grow and expand your business on a large scale. All the features required for building a good ecommerce website are available on this platform as an in-built feature at no added cost. Like Shopify, it facilitates selling across multiple channels. BigCommerce is the best ecommerce website builder for businesses which are looking to expand their reach and business faster. It has the best in-built features for any website builder.

SquareSpace: Squarespace has some of the most spectacular and best-designed ecommerce website templates which will help grab attention and highlight your products. Other than offering the best templates, it also offers all the required website features along with a strong inventory system. It has a unique section-based interface, which can help you build an ecommerce website as per your requirements.

SquareOnline: Square Online Store has strong sales features. It will work best if you are already using the Square POS system at your physical store. It is one of the easiest ecommerce platforms to work with. It has limited support with regards to the designing of the store. It is the best value for the money website builder.

QuickChilli is a well-known ecommerce website development company based out of Surrey, UK. For more than 20 years, we have been working towards providing top class affordable web designing and hosting services to our clients. Over the years we have designed and hosted hundreds of websites. If you are looking to design a simple brochure website or a ecommerce website for your business at an affordable rate, Contact us now for more information.

As a professional ecommerce website development company, QuickChilli can offer you customised designs for your website. Our specialized and dedicated team of web designing and hosting will be able to advise you on the best way to create maximum impact in your limited budget.