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Building a user-friendly and fully responsive website is not everyone's cup of tea because it requires focusing on many aspects, including page load speed, security, user experience, and SEO. While custom web development is quite a complicated process in itself, developing a sales-oriented eCommerce store poses its own set of unique challenges to developers.

Unlike an ordinary responsive website that provides useful information to users, developing a revenue-driven online store involves substantial planning, research, and technical know-how. Whether you're planning to create a brand-new online store or revamp an existing one, follow the steps listed below for lucrative eCommerce website development.

Identify Your Target Market

The first and foremost step to create a profitable online store is determining what you want to sell to whom. Consider your eCommerce site as a traditional brick and mortar store. Your aim should be to fill it with products that people want to buy.

Have you found a niche market? Are your products useful enough to attract potential buyers? Are they able to give you competitive advantages against your rival eCommerce sites? Ask yourself all these questions before you embark on your journey of running a successful eCommerce site.

Choose the Right eCommerce Platform

The eCommerce platform you pick to build and run your online store plays a vital role in determining whether your venture will be successful. When choosing an eCommerce platform, consider the following features:

  • Robust backend
  • SEO friendliness
  • Security
  • Scope for store customization
  • Mobile Friendliness
  • Integrations and plugins
  • Multiple payment gateways integration
  • Customer service

Several eCommerce platforms allow you to set up and run your online store in minutes, including Shopify, Magento, PrestaShop, and OpenCart. Choose the one that fits your requirements best. However, if you already run a WordPress site, consider using the WooCommerce plugin to turn it into a full-fledged online store.

Choose the Right eCommerce Development Partner

This is one of the most crucial steps in launching an eCommerce website. While you may decide to handle everything related to setting up and running your online store on your own, the reality is that you'll have to hire a reliable eCommerce development company sooner or later to get desired outcomes.

As a rule of thumb, you should go with somebody who is proficient in eCommerce development and has developed several online stores similar to yours in the past. After all, you don't want your eCommerce site to look like an experimental project.

Employ a Strong SEO Strategy

Another crucial thing you should never ignore while building an online store is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Since an SEO-friendly eCommerce site drives more sales and conversions than a non-SEO-friendly store, you should never forget to employ the best SEO practices to rank your online store and its products higher in search engine result pages (SERPs). This way, more and more customers will be able to discover your online store via search engines.

The essential aspects of SEO  include creating high-quality captivating content, writing engaging meta titles and descriptions, and adding well-optimized images with descriptive alt tags. However, you should also focus on optimizing your online store for Local Search and adding Rich Snippets to fire up sales and profitability.

Focus on Security and Performance

Statistics show that 40% of users exit a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. This is particularly true for mobile users who indulge in multi-tasking and are likely to switch to a rival if the website they are browsing takes forever to load.

If your online store doesn't use 256-bit SSL encryption and adhere to PCI-DSS, the chances are low that your customer will explore your inventory and make a purchase. So, add an SSL certificate to your eCommerce site and make sure it loads in a snap.

Don't Neglect the Power of Mobile

According to a report, nearly 55% of web traffic worldwide comes from mobile users. This means if your eCommerce site is not optimized for mobile, you'll be missing out on a large chunk of potential buyers.

Using a fully responsive theme right from the beginning or turning an existing online store to responsive is undoubtedly the best way to reach mobile users. However, you can also hire certified mobile app developers to build a highly interactive and functional mobile app for your online store.

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