Different Technology Solutions for your e-Commerce Website
E-Commerce Development Options
When we look at e-Commerce development, there are many options to choose from. At Strides Empower, we believe these should be founded on the basis of your specific business requirements. You can use existing e-Commerce tools and technologies or choose to go with a customised solution.
When Strides Empower is asked to work on e-Commerce development, there are many things we take into account such as: the size of your business, your industry, number of items and the expected amount of traffic on your website etc. Our approach is that modern online technologies should solve your particular business issues and meet your requirements, not just now, but also take into account future considerations and meet your longer-term business goals.
There are many software options and solutions to fit a variety of business requirements and suit a variety of budgets; So what about the software options you can expect us to talk about with you?…
Shopping Cart Software is usually the best option if you already have a website and wish to add a product catalog and process payments. These solutions include extensions and plugins for websites. The shopping cart software also provides limited merchant tools, payment gateways and a virtual storefront. This option is appropriate if you have a very limited timeline and budget and you do not plan to scale your business in the future.
E-commerce Software provides an ‘all in one’, fully featured solution. Depending on the type of platform used, it could include hosting, payment processing, security, design and merchant tools. We can build you a professional e-Commerce website using one of the multiple platforms and CMS (Content Management System) to give your customers a great user experience. On-line shops made on existing e-Commerce platforms are great for small and medium sized businesses, with light to medium traffic.
Custom e-Commerce Development is usually the most expensive and time-consuming option because you are creating your customised website from scratch. Saying that, it gives on-line retailers many advantages. Because you have a fully customised online shop, you can add any functionality you wish, since the pre-built framework does not have any limits! You are free to decide on the navigation path your customers will take to browse products, add items to their shopping basket and make their checkout. You also have total control of your on-line shop storefront, so you can tailor as appropriate for your market audience.
This type of development tends to suit larger companies with a wide product range and high traffic. In addition, custom e-Commerce development is popular for creating two-sided marketplaces, like Amazon and eBay.
You can integrate your on-line shop with any payment solution and CRM (Customer Relationship Management).
Our team of expert Developers and Project Managers at Strides Empower will work with you to map out a clear vision of your future project including the functionality of your administration panel, online shop architecture and your customers’ journey.
Fully customisable software allows you sell in different languages, currencies and ship products worldwide. It may also make sense to connect your on-line shop to your existing business applications, and CRM which this customised e-Commerce option has the scope to include.
Our Developers will use terms such as front-end and back-end, but what do these terms mean and what technologies will we use to build your e-Commerce site?…
Front-End, Back-End and Third Party Technologies
Front-End e-Commerce Technologies. They are all about what your customer will see and experience when they access your site. It’s the face of your online shop and what your customers will interact with. The face of your business and your brand made possible by our experienced UI & UX designers— who work collaboratively to make the website appear at its very best enabling a quick response time and easy to navigate functionalities.
To develop the front-end of an e-Commerce website, our developers will use technologies such as; HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and JavaScript libraries (Angular, Vue.js, React.js).
Back-End e-commerce Technologies. These are complex — and need to be because if the back-end doesn’t support well, then there will be no e-Commerce website to survive todays’ competitive market! It’s the backbone, if you like, to make your e-Commerce site stand-up and work well. Back-End development is responsible for uploading all the key content to provide extended functionalities through the web services, for example; real time access to stock status and product offerings, answers to delivery questions online, and a complete transaction engine.
Our expert developers know that it’s important to use the right technology so that the right functionality works well. Our Full-Stack developers use some of the most popular programming languages used to develop back-end including: PHP, Ruby, Node.js, Java, Ajax, jQuery and Python.
Third party services
These are usually cloud-based technologies used on e-Commerce websites to improve your customers’ shopping experience and meet your other business requirements. Typically inserted as lines of JavaScript loaded that transfer data to and from the 3rd party vendor’s servers and customer’s browser. For example, CRM data, analytic tools for important business stats, shipping modules and social networks.
Hosted e-Commerce Platforms
Will enable you to get things up and running quickly, and take care of the technical details for you. They cost more than self-hosted platforms (see below) and are less customisable. Monthly subscriptions will apply.
Shopify
Pros — Shopify is probably one of the best e-Commerce software on the market today. Its features help you build your own, flexible, scalable online store with hundreds of remarkable built-in features, and tons of apps. You can sell products directly on your website, and across numerous marketplaces and social channels. Our clients often hire us to make all the necessary changes for them — even though you can successfully use Shopify with minimal technical knowledge.
Cons — it has its downsides, as do any hosted e-commerce platforms. There is very little space for customisation, which means if you want to provide your customers with a unique shopping experience, you should consider an open source solution.
Big Commerce
Pros — Again, Big Commerce is a popular hosted e-Commerce platform. It allows beginners to create and launch an on-line shop. The platform has a convenient and simple administration panel and basic built-in e-commerce functionality.
Cons — It has even less options for customisation opportunities than Shopify. Although you can opt for a paid theme to give a more personalised look.
Self-Hosted e-Commerce Platforms
They provide you with absolute control and can be set up and run on a more limited budget, but they do require more time to set up and maintain. If you require additional features, you can integrate your existing shop with additional modules or develop a customised module or plug-in options with our help.
Self-hosted platforms offer you more flexibility, as not being tied to a centralised service means you can move your on-line shop if you outgrow your provider or find a better deal elsewhere.
Strides Empower can easily advise you on the best platform for requirements and provide ongoing maintenance for your site;
Magento
This is a leading platform, which is popular among medium and larger companies — more than 240,000 merchants use it. The platform gives users total control over the functionality and design providing customers with a unique experience.
WooCommerce
Technically, Woo Commerce is a plug-in for WordPress websites with e-Commerce functions. So if you want to turn your blog into an on-line shop, this may be an option to consider. It also allows ultimate customisability. Our developers can change the functionality and add product filters easily for you. It has many useful add-ons and extensions for increasing sales in an on-line shop and for improved marketing activities.
OpenCart
Is a highly customisable open source e-Commerce platform with no monthly fees. It has a robust administrator dashboard that gives you an at-a-glance view of important metrics like sales, customers, and more!
It also has multi-store support that lets you stay on top of different stores from a single interface. This functionality lets you set products for different stores, use specific themes for each on-line shop, and localise your websites. Product options and attributes are also quite flexible and the solution lets you add extra product variables.
PrestaShop
Was conceived so that third-party modules could easily build upon its foundations, making it an extremely customisable e-commerce software. Although, not as widely used — PrestaShop uses completely object-oriented code. One of the advantages of this is that, with the right code architecture, you can easily replace or extend parts of the core code with your own custom code, without having to touch the core code.
Hybris
Is an e-Commerce platform which allows its consumers to sell in both B2B and B2C markets effectively. It positions itself as “an omni-channel commerce solution which helps customer engagement”. It has a truly global footprint with over 500 customers and can boast names such as: Samsung, 3M, Vodafone, Oakley, Bridgestone and Carphone Warehouse! It is designed to handle high traffic and order volumes. It’s flexible and scalable, so you can quickly add new components to the platform when your needs change and your business grows.
Drupal Commerce
Used to build e-Commerce websites and applications of all sizes. At its core it is lean and mean — enforcing strict development standards and leveraging the greatest features for maximum flexibility.
Whereas most e-Commerce solutions are developed with an application mindset, highlighting what you can do with it out of the box, Drupal Commerce was developed with a framework mindset, focusing on what you can build with it. The core Commerce systems make no hard-coded assumptions about your business model, privileging our developers to build a custom e-Commerce solution to suit your business.
And finally,
OsCommerce
Another open source and self-hosted platform, OsCommerce lets you set up a highly customisable and extendable on-line shop. OsCommerce also has a wide and enthusiastic community behind it, with more than 300,000 store owners, developers, and service providers. However, osCommerce doesn’t have as many plug-ins and modern design templates that work smoothly with mobile applications.
Your Project
Our priority is is always focused on providing a solution to meet your business needs; the type and the size of your project are key factors we will ask you about before we price for your e-Commerce development as the type of project will determine the whole tech stack required for an on-line shop. We encourage you to consider what you want your business to look like now and into the future.
Many third party technologies, hosted and self-hosted platforms have monthly charges — we discuss the options so you can make informed choices which ultimately, work for your business requirements and budget.
Strides Empower will help you make an informed choice about the best technology to build your e-Commerce website. It’s an important choice for your business since it can provide your company with significant advantages over your competitors.
Michaela Moore — Operations Manager, Strides Empower
