Phases of Ecommerce software

 

 

Ecommerce or electronic commerce involves the goal of buying and selling of product and services through the internet. Ecommerce renders copious benefits to both the buyer and the seller. To launch an ecommerce software, there are 3 phases. Design, development and the testing phase. Above all, a user-friendly domain name should initially be purchased. Domain names can be bought from Go Daddy, 1&1, Name Cheap and so on. The server space to host should be bought. The amount of server space needed varies on induvidual’s requirements. Sever space to host can be got from Host Gator, just.com and the like. Once the domain name and server space is bought, the designing phase starts. For designing an ecommerce website, primarily the design should be made as a photoshop document. The next trait would be to convert the photoshop document of the design to HTML coding. The designing phase should not consist of lots of graphics. Requisite amount of graphics and animation must only be used. Else, the design would become unfathomable. The designing phase would require a time period of one week to 10 days approximately. The next trait is the development phase. PHP, JSP and the like can be used to develop the software for ecommerce. PHP is opted to be the best among the two as it is open souce and available for free. Also, PHP renders a secure software. CSS, Java Script and the like can be used along with PHP. For the databases part, SQL, MySQL, Oracle and the like can be used. MySQL would be apt one to use coupled with PHP. The development phase involves minimal of 2 developers to complete the phase in 60 days approximately. To decide on pragmatic features is very important. Testing is the next phase to be performed. Usability test should be done for good user interface. A trail purchase with real entities should be made inorder to check if there are any bugs. If there are any errors, rectify them immediately. On the whole, the process would get completed in 720 hours. A cost of $5,000 would be required for completing all the phases and to get a complete ecommerce software.

 

There is an additional way to lauch your ecommerce website. You can buy an ecommerce software. There are many companies that sell ecommerce software at a justifiable price. You can launch your website and start business in just 24 hours. Choose the right company that offers the ecommerce software which is feature-rich and upgradable.

Ecommerce versus Traditional shopping

Ecommerce or electronic commerce is primarily about buying and selling of products and services via the internet. Online commerce has elevated to great heights in the past few years. This is definitely due to the pragmatic benefits it possesses. The era of shopping in malls and stores is gradually fading. The period of shopping via the internet has become the new fashion. This is purely due to the convinience that e-commerce renders. Online shopping overcomes all the geographical limitations. Anyone can do overseas business with a small revenue. Ecommerce eliminates the travel time and cost. Physical stores need infrastructure cost. But in ecommerce there are no hidden infrastructure costs. An attractive website that is well equipped with features does all the magic. The website design should be an eye catcher from the first sight of the visitor. The cost of products is comparitively less in the internet. Comparison of products can be done effectively in ecommerce. Online shopping websites bestow distinct products that are assorted in numerous related categories. The visitors of the site find it extremely easy to search and retrieve the products. Advertising is economical in e-commerce than the traditional methods. People use search engines for getting what they need. Advertising through organic search or pay per click is extremely effective. E-commerce bestows a lot of deals, offers and so on. With the evolution of mobile commerce or m-commerce, shopping at anytime any anywhere is possible. A survey states that there are more mobile and tablet shoppers than shoppers from other internet connected devices. E-commerce provides unlimited information about each and every product. To do overseas business, ecommerce bestows many useful features like multi-currency support and multi-language support. E-commerce also enables featured products and updates on new products, hot deals and the like via e-mail or to mobiles via messages, which would be tempting for the customers to click the buy button. A large return on small investment can be attained in e-commerce whereas this is a big league in traditional business. E-commerce enables both the buyer and the seller to do business round the clock. After glancing the numerous benefits that ecommerce renders, are you interested to start an ecommerce business? There is a simple way to do it. You can purchase an ecommerce website. There are a lot of companies that design, develop and sell e-commerce websites that are rich in features at a justifiable cost.

 

 

How to construct a online store?

The growth of ecommerce is amplifing day after day. There are currently more than 5 million ecommerce stores. The number of online stores sales that are sprouting is $176.2 billion in US at the moment. Statistics say that this will face a 10% increase within 2015. If you are planning to construct a online store, then you should initially do a meticulous study inorder to create a lucrative online shop.

After making a thorough study, its extremely easy to start an online store. The initial step would be to get a domain name and a server space to host. The domain name should be an user-friendly one. Server space may vary depending upon induviduals.

The secondary step is to design a shopping cart. The design should be first sketched in the form of a psd. Then a html conversion on that photoshop document should be etched. This phase may take a time duration of one week to 10 days. Then it is important to choose a appropriate ecommerce software. There are lot of companies that provide effective software for ecommerce such as PrestaShop, VirtueMart, osCommerce, Zen Cart, OpenCart, Igecommerce, Magento and the like.

The next trait is the development phase. Initially a plan of how the development phase will flow is outlined. A minimum of 2 developers are required. Server side languages such as PHP, ASP etc can be used. PHP is the best among the two. Because of the fact that PHP is an open source language, it is free of cost, it renders high degree of performance and security, PHP is suggested to do good in comparison with other server side languages. CSS, AJAX, Jquery and Java script can be used along with PHP. SQL, MySQL, Oracle can be used as databases for an online shopping cart software. MySQL is superlative to use along with PHP, when compared to the other databases. The designing phase would take a time of 60days (approximately).

Testing is the next phase to be performed. The Linux or windows operating system can be used.

The above are the foundation phases for construction of a webstore. Decide on the features that are to be put on for the online store. Intergration of payment gateways, affiliate functions, multi-lingual features are some of the effective add-ons to the features.

At present, there are lot of companies that create an online store. You can launch the site and start business within 24 hours.

Success of Ecommerce software

 

 

Ecommerce or electronic commerce revolves around the metamorphosis of buying and selling via the internet. Ecommerce is considered to be one of the greatest innovations of the decade. There are, at the moment, more than 5 billion ecommerce websites and this count is swiftly elevating each day. The number of ecommerce buyer, on daily basis has crossed more than 6000 million. With this fleeting increase anyone can easily forespeak that ecommerce is the future of the shopping world. Mobile phones are now used by everyone for all purposes. A report states that there are more shoppers via the mobile devices and tablets than those who shop via other internet connected devices. Hence, many of the ecommerce website owners are moving their hands on developing ecommerce websites that are compatible for mobile devices. If the mobile device is having a touch interface, then all the functions on the ecommerce site should be made touch sensitive. Mobile phones have a greater reach amongst the crowd as they have a close touch to customers. The information regarding the new products, hot deals and offers can be updated easily via mobile phones as the exposure time of the deals is more. Mobile commerce or m-commerce has the ability to exert a large number of people. This creates an excessive temptation to for the customers to click the buy button. M-commerce involves a very simple way to make a purchase. Anywhere anytime purchase can be made via moblie phones. The success of an ecommerce site mainly lies in its payment system. If the payment procedures are complicated and involves a long process people get annoyed. So, designing a payment-friendly ecommerce site that is entirely secure and simple is one big league. The loading time of the whole website, should take place in a jizzy. Also, the images of products should load quickly inorder to create a good interface to the visitor of the ecommerce website. Features are the elements that exert a pull on the visitors of the ecommerce website. This aspect is were you can achieve uniqueness. Include features that have a high degree of benefits. ecommerce site should definitely possess a responsive user-interface. Product rating helps visitors to make a choose the product that is right for them. Comparison of products is the biggest success of ecommerce versus the traditional shopping strategies. Enabling the feature of sales report helps the customers to maintain the history of their purchases. Getting feedback from customers enables the website owner to understand on what areas he has to improve and so on. If you are doing a overseas business, concentrating on wide spread georgraphy, then offering a multi-language and multi-currency support carries good will. There are much more features too that make you look unique.

 

Either you can design and develop your own ecommerce website, else you can buy one. Purchasing an ecommerce website is a economical and time saving optate to succeed in sales. There are a lot of companies that offer a full equipped online shopping cart website that includes a lot of features that are pragmatic. Choose the right company that sells a website that is extremely beneficial with all features that ensures success on the go.

What to Test on an Ecommerce Site?

Ecommerce is an emerging platform that is getting upgraded day by day. To keep pace with this amplifying speed, testing is one essential instrument. Continuous testing of the website is important. A small change that is made to to site, may have a great effect, if not tested at the right time in a right way. For instance, just inserting a headline would have affected your content quality. Testing should be done in all browsers, all mobile devices and all platform combinations inorder to check for compatibility. Periodical tesing in these platforms must be made mandatory. Mobile impact on ecommerce has become immense. Every e-shop owner is striving to break in and set a unique path in the smart phone and tablet world, in order to attain a compatible-friendly ambience. Either you can create a new mobile website with fresh HTML, CSS coding, else you can fabricate a responsive website, that is compatible on any type of device. The second option sounds more complicated among the two, but its the best method. Testing should be done for different operating systems and their versions. Compatibility differs with varying screen sizes and so testing should be done for the same. You may now arise to a question!

What do I actually test?

There are lot of aspects that needs to be tested and build online store . Changes made to the content, formatting changes, addition of new content, deletion of the same, changes made in settings, navigation of the ecommerce site, forms, templetes, addition or removal of links, promotions, changes made to settings in shipping, landing pages, new ad campaigns and the like, should be tested frequently. There are many tools to do testing automatically. These tools are extremely costly. If this is not affordable, atleast the browsers that are popularly used should be tested. The browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari needs testing. The commonly used operating systems, Windows 7 and 8, Mac Os etc., should surely be tested. In the case of mobile phones and Tablets, operating systems like Android, Mac, Windows and Blackberry should be tested. Depending upon the changes made to the e- commerce site, the intensity of the system will vary. Testing should be done starting from the small elements to the detailed ones. Any setting that is changed, must be reviewed and tested as soon as possible. Usability testing of the ecommerce software  store should indeed be done effectively.