Roadmap to develop ecommerce website in 2024

Today, we live in an era of rapid digitalization. According to statistics, global e-commerce retail sales are projected to grow rapidly from 2014 to 2026.

In this article, the Gremcy team invites you to explore the key stages of creating your own ecommerce website in 2024. Whether you’re just starting out in the world of online business or already have some experience, it’s crucial to stay updated on the latest development opportunities and market demands. Let’s discuss the key aspects that will help you succeed in the ecommerce business.

Finding a business model and niche.

If there’s already an existing business with a known brand and customer base, you need to address three main tasks:

• Create the website to showcase products, plan for technical capabilities to accept orders and payments.
• Set up the process for shipping orders to customers.
• Actively advertise specific products or the website as a whole, engage with relevant audiences, and find new customers.

For offline businesses, arrangements with suppliers and warehouse rentals are typically already settled.

When starting a business from scratch, it’s important to plan its structure. There are four main options:

• Traditional Store: Purchase products, store them, and resell with a markup on your own website.
• Manufacturing: Have production facilities, staff, and storage for raw materials and finished goods. This is complex and expensive considering ongoing costs for website maintenance, marketing, and initial production expenses.
• Dropshipping: Take customer orders and purchase items from manufacturers, who then ship directly to customers. The advantage of dropshipping is minimal startup resources since you don’t need to invest in warehouse space or logistics. Operational costs are relatively low, including website creation.
• Marketplace: Operate as a platform where manufacturers or suppliers list their products for sale. The site owners are not directly involved with the products themselves.

At the same time, it’s important to work on finding business ideas and target audience. To find what customers need, you can study large websites, both local ones like Rozetka and global giants like Amazon and AliExpress. There are also services used by marketers, for example, Sell The Trend, which provides data on sales levels, prices, and the number of stores selling specific types of products. It’s essential to analyze user behavior online through keyword analytics—experts use tools like Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends.

To start an online store, you determine the potential range of customers by age, location, and approximate income. An approximate analysis of interests, hobbies, and habits is also done. Marketing research studies what customers buy, when and where they make purchases.

Studying competitors is also crucial because to offer customers a worthy alternative, you need to know what competitors sell, at what prices, and what unique advantages they have. The approach to order processing, customer service, and feedback is also studied. Of course, you need to look at the website’s appearance, its technical capabilities, and visual solutions. Analytics are necessary to understand what works and what doesn’t.

It’s also important to create a business plan because it directly affects the structure of the online store. You need to understand how many products need to be sold to be profitable, where to find new customers, how to attract traffic, and more.

Finding suppliers

It’s crucial to have reliable channels for sourcing products or raw materials for manufacturing. If you’re looking to resell goods from the US market, you can find them through popular listings like Amazon Best Sellers. Similar options are available on eBay and AliExpress. When it comes specifically to finding suppliers, this is often done through Chinese services like AliExpress or Alibaba. The advantage of the first option is that you can order relatively small batches of goods without limitations.

Some of these websites have additional supplier verification processes, which reduces the risk of dealing with fraudsters and makes resolving issues easier if they arise. Alibaba, for instance, offers such verification from their platform. In the beginning, it’s wise to place trial orders with small batches to assess the quality of the products or raw materials, delivery speed, and interaction with the supplier.

Developing a website from scratch using frameworks.

Building an e-commerce website from scratch is an option for business owners who want a unique site in terms of functionality and features. This allows for future improvements, scalability, adding new features, and optimizing performance. A partnering company will develop a site that isn’t limited by CMS constraints. To create such an online store, the following steps are needed:

• Briefing and creating a specification: This is a crucial stage in developing an e-commerce site, regardless of whether frameworks are used. They define the requirements and specifications that frameworks help implement.
• Design creation: This may involve using styling frameworks like Bootstrap or Tailwind CSS to simplify the creation of a visually appealing and user-friendly interface.
• Frontend development using frameworks: For example, React, Angular, or Vue.js are used to create the client-side, ensuring user interaction through interface development, backend integration, and responsive design.
• Backend development using frameworks: For instance, Django, Ruby on Rails, or Express.js are used to create the server-side, handling user requests, managing data, and integrating with payment systems.

Testing an e-commerce website includes unit testing, integration testing, functional testing, regression testing, performance testing, and security testing to ensure quality, stability, and security. This helps identify and fix errors in the early stages of development, reducing risks and improving the final product.

At each stage, specialists are involved, and there’s flexibility to choose different technologies. The designer focuses on finding optimal colors, unique fonts, graphics, and creating key components like icons and background images for the site. When it comes to functionality, there are various options. For instance, if PHP is used for development, options include:

• Yii: Known for faster development due to open-source nature and quick application loading speed.
• Zend: Noted for convenient separation of site elements based on importance and functionality.
• Symfony: Popular for its testing options and other competitive advantages, including reusable code.

Regarding the server-side of the site, specialists might also use Python, Ruby, and for the user interface, technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are utilized. Database management involves MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and the work of the designer among other tasks.

As for costs, they vary individually. Mandatory expenses include company registration, domain name leasing or purchase, hosting, and direct website creation costs. Since it’s an online store, payment tools need to be integrated, and ongoing expenses for marketing tasks need to be budgeted.

Developing an e-commerce website using Open Source solutions.

Such a solution will somewhat reduce the time it takes to create an online store and allow saving on website implementation costs. Similar platforms are chosen based on the following principles:

• Choosing between a free and a paid platform. Commercial engines typically offer more functionality, customer support, and other benefits.
• Features and ease of website creation, setup, and ongoing administration.
• Available functionality. Popular platforms come with many customizable options tailored to specific needs, flexible interface customization, a wide range of plugins, modules, and extensions.

Website development experts also assess ready-made engines based on their SEO-friendliness. This includes whether it’s possible to control loading speed, access metadata, sitemap, and more.

In the world, there’s a well-established list of the most popular platforms. Each has its pros and cons:

• WordPress is known for its open-source nature, numerous plugins, and ease of management. However, it initially has vulnerabilities and may require purchasing plugins, which should be carefully considered.
• Drupal excels in high performance and offers many useful configurations. However, it demands technical expertise to operate effectively.
• Joomla! shares similar advantages such as reliability and scalability. However, setting up SEO can be relatively complex for beginners, and excessive code may slow down websites. Additionally, there are fewer plugins available compared to other platforms.

Other alternatives include OpenCart, PrestaShop, OsCommerce, and many more. The roadmap for all these involves similar steps:

• Purchase a domain and hosting, understanding the correct parameters to reach your audience effectively. Implement an SSL certificate to secure user data.
• Directly install the chosen CMS.
• Configure the CMS, input data, and install plugins as needed.
• Work on the design.
• Create the website header and footer.
• Install an eCommerce plugin.

Further steps include adding products, configuring shipping, payments, and other critical elements.

Development based on SaaS solutions.

We’re talking about cloud-based online platforms designed specifically for quick designing and launching of online stores. Users add necessary products, choose themes, colors, and set up payment tools. Afterwards, they only need to manage sales and marketing tasks. Here, a commission is paid to the platform. Giants in this category include Shopify and Etsy.

It’s useful to compare each point separately:

• Ease of Use and Design Variability: Shopify leads in user-friendliness, atomization, and design flexibility. It offers many templates for customization. This platform is more suitable for large stores, whereas Etsy has standard layouts.
• Functionality: Etsy focuses on essentials like quick product addition, payment service integration, and review analytics. It’s ideal for promoting handmade goods. Shopify offers significantly more options with built-in marketing tools, third-party extensions, and its own payment system.
• Promotion: Shopify also excels in promotion by meeting Google’s requirements, providing metadata management tools, and integrating with well-known traffic analytics services. Etsy allows adding tags to images and configuring meta tags for product items.

Regarding Etsy, it’s best for small stores specializing in specific themes. Customization options are minimal, and sellers must pay fees not just for items but also for completed orders. Shopify allows maximum website customization, adds numerous useful extensions and plugins, and operates under the popular dropshipping model. However, setup can be relatively complex, and the extensions themselves are paid.

Marketing and ongoing support

For example, the e-commerce website is ready, but it won’t generate income unless the right audience is directed there. Marketing experts can advise on the following steps, each complementing the others:

• Paid Search Advertising: This involves placing useful advertisements on social media and other channels where users are likely to see them. Typically, Google Ads are used for this purpose.
• Content Marketing: This means that, in addition to product listings, your website will feature useful materials such as articles, infographics, videos, and more. The goal of this content is to increase brand awareness, build loyalty, and assist customers in making purchasing decisions.
• Active Social Media Management: Smart use of unique and valuable content on social media platforms allows for engagement with the audience and fosters meaningful interactions.

Creating a successful online store involves SEO as a crucial part. This is when experts develop an SEO core, build links, and optimize existing content. Through this process, users searching relevant queries in search engines will see your site at the top positions. Email newsletters can also be quite effective, where tailored templates are created for specific target audiences.

Expenses for a website don’t end after it’s launched. Besides marketing costs, there’s also the ongoing analysis of current conversion rates and other metrics. Specialists can identify areas for improvement to boost sales by a few percentage points. Typically, these steps include:

• Fixing navigation errors, site structure, and adapting the design. It’s essential for the site to display correctly on both desktop and mobile devices, ensuring users can quickly find products and related information.
• Reducing checkout time. It should be clear to new users how to purchase products and complete orders swiftly.
• Ensuring the product range meets current audience needs, including the quantities of specific items in stock.
• Implementing personalized customer experience solutions on the site. This could involve recommending similar products the customer has viewed or purchased, offering discounts, promotions, and gifts.

Modern online stores should feature a product rating and review system. This is favored by search engine algorithms, improves store services, and helps correct errors. Plus, it makes it easier for customers to choose specific products.

World e-commerce trends.

It’s beneficial to adapt successful ideas from large foreign markets to your own example in order to maintain consistently high sales and outpace your competitors. Here are some areas worth paying attention to:

• Implementing conditions for mobile shopping. This could be a separate mobile version with a simplified website design but convenient navigation, or a branded mobile app.
• Maximum automation of core processes. Almost all business processes can now be set up with just a few clicks. This includes advertising, uploading products to marketplaces, shipping, and payment services.
• Collaboration or partnership with related or complementary brands.

When it comes to specific technologies on an e-commerce website, context matters again. Not everything makes sense to implement. For example, if you’re selling customized clothing or shoes, a customization order builder could be very effective. Users choose basic dimensions and can preview the finished product.

A fascinating feature is cross-selling in the shopping cart, where alongside the list of added items, there are additional recommendations for other products.

A classic approach is bundling product groups into sets that cost less when purchased together. For instance, a razor and shaving cream, a printer and ink, or paper.

The need to build a team.

Apart from other employees in the store, opening a website requires hiring those who will directly work with the site. This includes marketers, who may be versatile professionals or specific copywriters, SEO experts, and SMM specialists. It’s also necessary to contract web developers, programmers, and designers. On average, about half of the budget goes towards salaries. However, local and small stores operating on platforms like Etsy don’t require as much expense or the formation of such a team.

To keep people on a store’s website, it’s important to try to replicate the offline shopping experience where you can physically see products from all angles. One way to partially achieve this is through 3D product views that rotate 360 degrees. This feature is very popular as it helps users understand exactly how a product looks in practice.

Videos on product pages serve a similar role. Clothing stores, for example, can simulate a fashion show in their catalog.

What should you focus on when developing an e-commerce website in 2024?

E-commerce store owners need to focus not just on increasing the number of new customers. It doesn’t matter how many people visit your site if they aren’t making repeat purchases and increasing their average spending. Even a well-designed and functional website can become unprofitable without steady repeat sales.

Additional advantages for customers, aside from product availability, include providing guarantees, bonuses, and discounts. Customer loyalty programs, where rewards are given for regular orders, have proven effectiveness. But there are other ways to attract customers to your site:

• Easy product returns and extended return periods: For clothing or shoes, this could mean months-long trial periods, and pet accessories could be returnable even after a year. Some customers might return items and get refunds months later, but overall, this builds loyalty.
• Loyalty program: This can operate directly—more purchases earn more points that can be exchanged for useful items. Sometimes this involves cross-marketing, where points are exchanged for goods or services on other websites.
• Engaging customers through all communication channels: To retain customers, motivate them to subscribe to all communication channels—messaging apps, email newsletters, etc. Offer individual discount codes for subscribing.

If you have an official mobile app, encourage its installation as well.

Some top tips for the e-commerce market.

For a successful online store in the long run, it’s important to analyze the opportunities within the chosen niche—whether there’s high or low competition. Some product categories have peak seasons or are influenced by uncontrollable external factors, like generators. Each product group in the Ukrainian market has its own specifics:

• When selling electronics, you’ll compete with big players, so it’s better to focus on a narrow category and emphasize variety. Offering systems for exchanges or returns and creating original designs can also help you stand out. Accessories like headphones, cases, holders, and headsets have the highest markup.
• Choosing a niche in food products should focus on offering items not found in large chains, such as eco-friendly products, goods from other countries, or premium varieties and brands.
• Children’s products sell well for several reasons: parents have limited time to shop offline, and safety considerations are crucial.

Gremcy has successfully implemented many e-commerce projects in various niches. Examples include Veneto, a sleep products store, Spraga, a kombucha production company, and other successful projects in Ukraine.

Advantages of working with Gremcy.

The key to success lies in the professionalism and skills of website developers. We will assist you in launching your online project by maintaining control at every stage. We guarantee full immersion in the work with an individual approach to specific requirements. It doesn’t matter which niche you need to work in or which markets you need to enter.

Our experts offer the implementation of an ecommerce website with the following tasks:

• Creating and supporting a small ecommerce site with single products from scratch.
• Web development of an ecommerce marketplace.
• Development of a mobile ecommerce application.
• Audit, error correction, and modernization of existing websites.
• Technical support for ecommerce projects at all levels, including code optimization.
• Comprehensive new business creation process, including initial analysis, market research, project roadmap creation, and other important stages.

Our guarantee of success is our experience, necessary qualifications, and expertise across all areas of work — from setting up a startup ecommerce site on SaaS platforms to quality control for large projects with a long history of operation.