How to Build an Ecommerce Website

Today, every company is an ecommerce company. Whether you own and operate a small business as a side hustle or you’re a large enterprise company that makes billions of dollars in profits every year, an ecommerce website is a critical sales tool. With an ecommerce site, you have a sales channel that is “always on,” without any of the overhead costs of a physical shop front, such as rent, utilities and more.

We live in a digital-first world and customers expect to be able to transact with any business online. But not all ecommerce websites are created equal. A successful site will include the right features and capabilities to make shopping intuitive, easy and fast. Here’s everything you need to know if you want to build an ecommerce website that converts.

What you’ll learn:

• First things first: What is an ecommerce website?
• How to build an ecommerce website
• 10 Key features of an ecommerce website
• Ecommerce website design examples
• Design differences between B2C and B2B ecommerce sites
• Considerations for your ecommerce website design
• FAQs for ecommerce websites
• Build your ecommerce website and boost conversions — fast

An ecommerce website is more than just a landing page to display your business name and contact information. And it’s more than a promotional tool. An ecommerce website must have all the functionalities necessary to make it easy to buy and sell products online.

To launch an ecommerce website, you’ll need software that enables you to create a branded design and post high-quality images and videos that accurately represent your products. You’ll also need capabilities like navigation, product search, payments and more. All these elements combine to create an online shopping experience for your customers. The better your user experience, the better your site performs.

To thrive in the highly competitive ecommerce landscape, it is absolutely essential for the functionality and design of your site to highlight your brand’s unique characteristics and qualities. Now more than ever, high-quality ecommerce website design is a nonnegotiable business asset. To build a site like this, businesses need an ecommerce platform that includes the right tools for impeccable website design and also allows for flexibility and customisation.

Once you have an ecommerce platform and the building blocks to create a customised website design, you can integrate the key features that will drive success.

1. Content management capabilities: Ecommerce website content includes everything from images and video to product descriptions and promotional banners. You’ll want the ability to change content quickly to keep up with customer demand, industry trends, stock levels and more.
2. Easy navigation and search: It goes without saying that a good ecommerce website should be easy to navigate. This includes an intuitive shop front search that allows shoppers to find relevant products as quickly as possible. Navigability and search are key to providing streamlined ecommerce experiences that maximise conversions.
3. Security: By definition, ecommerce deals with transactions during which there is inevitably an exchange of sensitive financial information. Most ecommerce transactions and one-touch mobile payments are made with credit or debit cards, although some may also be made directly from bank accounts linked to a payment service like PayPal. All personal and financial information shared by ecommerce users must be kept secure. To establish and maintain trust with customers, your platform should be equipped with advanced, modern security features, including layered security, SSL certificates, VPNs and more.
4. Customer service: Shoppers don’t want to dial a call centre every time they have a question. Your ecommerce website should have easily accessible customer service, whether that means automated chatbots for routine requests or a helpful knowledge centre with videos and guides. This will enable customers to find answers quickly online while helping you to cut costs by avoiding service centre calls.
5. Payment options: From instalment payments to crypto to digital wallets, new payment methods arise regularly and they’re adopted faster than ever. To keep up, businesses need the ability to implement them quickly. To avoid abandoned baskets, an ecommerce website should also have easy, intuitive checkout process.
6. Reviews and a feedback loop: A stunning 93% of consumers say that online reviews affect their purchasing decisions. Positive reviews help you to attract new customers and critical reviews help you to focus resources on the areas of improvement that would make the biggest impact.
7. Data collection and management: If you want to create personalised, compelling ecommerce experiences, you first need to understand your customers. And that requires data. Whether you’re a small or enterprise business, first-party data collection should be a key feature of your ecommerce website. Collecting data about your customers’ motivations, behaviours, engagement and preferences will help you to make better business decisions and drive success. Once you collect all that data, other tools (like a customer data platform and a customer relationship management platform) can help to put it to good use.
8. Scalability: Every brand wants to grow. Your ecommerce website should be scalable so it fits your needs now and in the future. This means your site should always be available and fast, even during peak traffic. If you have plans to expand globally, your ecommerce site and payments system should have capabilities to localise by market.
9. Integration with physical retail: When shopping online, customers want to know whether they can find a given product at a nearby retail store. A good ecommerce platform will feature a “find-in-store” button linked to geolocation and brick-and-mortar inventory. This requires the right inventory management capabilities and tools to empower in-store service agents with access to digital inventory, seamless ordering and speedy delivery.
10. Automation and AI: A good ecommerce platform will allow a brand to use secure customer data to personalise shopping experiences for site visitors across multiple channels. Artificial intelligence can power product recommendations that automatically appear and readjust to users’ preferences in real time, with every click. AI tools for commerce can also assist with writing product descriptions, tailoring promotions to each customer’s unique needs and preferences and more. Built-in tools for automation and AI helps all your teams — from merchandising to marketing to commerce — work smarter and drive more conversions.

Every company is an ecommerce company, but each business has its own unique needs when it comes to its ecommerce website. For example, a small-to-medium-sized business (SMB) in the retail industry might want to launch a templated shop front with simple product search capabilities and a checkout workflow. On the other hand, an enterprise-level manufacturing company that sells thousands of products at unique negotiated prices across many geographies will need more robust solutions for shop front search and navigation. Here are a few examples of other differences between ecommerce websites.

Depending on the type of buyers your business serves, there are a few key design differences to keep in mind. For example, the purchase processes look very different for B2B buyers and consumers. If you operate B2B ecommerce, you will likely need to make design considerations that encompass different pricing models and other purchasing steps like evaluation of proposals and approvals. B2B buyers also demand highly intuitive self-service options that make routine interactions (like reordering of large purchases) easier.

B2B website content will likely need to include much more information about complex products than an ecommerce website for consumers. You’ll need product demos, detailed descriptions on product pages, testimonials from customers and long-form content that highlights the unique differentiators of your products along with their features and benefits.

For all the differences between B2B and B2C ecommerce sites, one thing is the same: Both demand stellar usability, visual design and UX. In fact, a whopping 90% of B2B buyers expect a similar shopping experience on a B2B ecommerce website as they do on a consumer site.

Mobile functionality: Shoppers should have the same experience across every channel, on every device. Today, most people interact with brands for the first time on their mobile devices and mobile shoppers account for more than 60% of all site visits. This means mobile functionality and responsive design are essential.

Optimising your site for mobile commerce is no longer an added bonus or afterthought; it should be your main priority. It is imperative that your site works across every major device and operating system, ensuring that you are not automatically ruling out a large portion of shoppers. A good way to prevent problems across devices is to use a platform that prioritises responsive design.

When it comes to designing mobile experiences, it is also important to embrace the latest innovations that respond to today’s consumer demands, like one-touch mobile payments and integrations with social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and TikTok.

Personalised content: Personalisation puts customers at the heart of your ecommerce website, allowing you to build a unique relationship with every shopper and tailor experiences at every click. Personalisation techniques include serving up different designs tailored to different target audiences, tailoring search results to each user’s individual shopping behaviour and providing hyper-relevant product recommendations through the power of AI.

Real-time, harmonised customer data is the fuel that drives these experiences. By uncovering insights about your shoppers and their preferences, you can create intelligent, personalised designs that convert.

Streamlined checkout: Not everyone who browses your site and fills an online shopping basket will complete their transaction. In fact, the average basket abandonment rate is nearly 70%. Why? While many factors can affect this rate, the most likely explanation is that the checkout process is too complicated.

To keep things simple, cut out any unnecessary obstacles in your payment workflow. Request only the information you need and allow buyers to make purchases without having to set up an account. Offer multiple payment options. Make errors easy to fix, without forcing customers to restart the purchase or payment process.

Simple click paths: With every click, you lose a large percentage of your audience. Make sure the journey to purchase is quick by minimising the number of steps it takes to find a product and complete a transaction. It is also essential to make sure your main call to action is featured prominently near the top of the page, with a clear purpose and destination. Try not to drown the page with links and buttons that compete for attention. Use thoughtful design to visually prioritise the clicks that are most important to both you and your customers.

In a digital-first world, it’s becoming increasingly important to design a website that sets your brand apart. Providing each customer with a seamless, personalised journey that leads them effortlessly to final purchase is one of the best ways to do just that. To craft an exceptional digital journey across every channel and realise a quick time to value, prioritise scalable, flexible tools that give you access to first-party data and automation.