Guide to eCommerce Software Development: Costs, Features, & Best Practices

Online shopping is the trend of late for providing great convenience and flexibility for shoppers. It lets shoppers buy their favorite products from the comfort of their homes and get products delivered to their doorstep.

It has given a great boost to the eCommerce sector. As per the survey, retail eCommerce sales are likely to exceed $4.1 trillion in the year 2024.

The above stats encouraged entrepreneurs to make their way into this sector, which has finally fostered the demand for eCommerce software development including custom software development services. Custom software solutions are crucial for businesses looking to differentiate themselves in the competitive eCommerce landscape. These services offer tailored platforms, unique functionalities, and optimized features that help businesses meet their specific needs and goals, ensuring a seamless user experience and better scalability.

If you are also keen to start your venture into this sector, you can explore here complete information regarding eCommerce development services. Let’s start now.

What is eCommerce Software Development?

eCommerce software development is a process that is related to creating online stores that allow retail businesses to display and sell their products online. It involves creating both website and mobile apps accompanied by an intuitive user interface.

Developers integrate several necessary features to make the online store more meaningful and user-centric. These features include inventory management, payment gateways, order processing, and more.

eCommerce software development needs a perfect combination of coding skills, UI/UX design, getting versed in market trends, etc. These are necessary for customizable eCommerce platform development to match the emerging demands of customers.

Also Read:
30 Top eCommerce Software Development Companies (2024 Ranking)

Types of eCommerce Software

Before you proceed with eCommerce software development, you need to first select the right software. Let’s explore some of the popular options and thus choose the right one based on your business requirements.

1. Shopify

Being a cloud-based software, Shopify is a well-known eCommerce software development platform for its scalability and user-friendliness. Be it small or medium-sized businesses, this software is perfect for businesses of all sizes. It’s available with eCommerce payment gateways, templates, integration with social media channels, marketplaces, and more.

2. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a highly customizable and robust eCommerce plugin developed mainly for WordPress. That’s the reason why it’s the most preferred choice for eCommerce software development among those who are already familiar with WordPress.

As a fully adaptable and open-source platform, WooCommerce is a good choice for businesses seeking to have great control over the eCommerce website design and function.

3. Squarespace

Squarespace is a good option for businesses looking for visually enticing templates. It offers a complete eCommerce software development solution that is perfect for both small businesses that prioritize design. It provides simple drag-and-drop site editing, built-in analytics, and necessary eCommerce functions.

4. Prestashop

Prestashop is another open-source eCommerce software development platform that is perfect for businesses that require higher flexibility even without compromising performance. With this platform, you can get a range of plugins, themes, customization options, and more.

Prestashop lets users take advantage of its community support. Since Prestashop is self-hosted, users need to have extensive technical knowledge when it comes to setup and maintenance.

5. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is highly scalable, versatile, and also popular for having its powerful built-in eCommerce SEO tools. The platform is capable of handling even larger inventories. It’s a perfect choice for eCommerce software development for growing businesses that can anticipate higher sales volumes.

BigCommerce offers features such as payment options, sales channels, eCommerce shipping integrations, and more. It’s a perfect option for businesses looking to expand fast.

What Are the Features of An eCommerce Software?

An eCommerce software boasts multiple features to streamline operations and improve the online shopping experience. Let’s explore some of the top features that you can implement in eCommerce software development.

1. Order Management

It’s one of the core features of eCommerce software that is necessary to track, process, and fulfill orders with higher accuracy. Order management can centralize order details and make it simple for businesses to analyze status, manage inventory, and handle exchanges or returns easily. It thus plays a crucial role in enhancing customer service and minimizing delays.

2. Simple Checkout

An easy checkout process is something that is quite necessary to minimize cart abandonment rates. It works effectively to improve user experience.

A simple checkout minimizes the steps of purchasing any products and allows customers to buy products quickly. It also includes options like auto-fill forms, guest checkout, express payment options, etc.

3. Wishlist

A wishlist brings an option for users to save those products that they wish to buy in the future. This feature plays a vital role in increasing engagement. It also fosters return visits and lets businesses send various personalized reminders or promotions. It works effectively to increase conversions.

4. User-Friendly Interface

With a user-friendly and intuitive interface, customers get a kind of surety that they can navigate the website in the easiest way. It engages users and thus boosts usability with search functionality, product categorizations, responsive design, etc.

5. Payment Options

An eCommerce software offers various payment options like digital wallets, credit cards, debit cards, and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). These payment options are necessary to match varied customer preferences and also to ensure a highly secured transaction.

6. Analytics

Integrated analytics offer important insights into customer behavior, inventory levels, and sales trends. Getting details about user demographics, conversion rates, product performance, and more helps businesses make data-driven decisions. It also helps them optimize their eCommerce marketing strategies, adjust pricing, and boost overall store performance.

Why Develop Custom E-commerce Software?

The main reason for custom eCommerce software development is it’s developed based on specific needs and goals of your businesses. Custom eCommerce solutions bring the possibility of various things like improved user experience, unique features, and facilitate a smooth integration with the existing system.

It improves business operations and lets them adapt to the growth and also changing market trends. The custom eCommerce software development helps you safeguard your sensitive customer data and thus improves your overall trust.

Custom software development lets you gain complete control over both functionality and design and thus enables businesses to develop brand identity and match customer expectations easily.

How to Develop a ecommerce Software Step by Step?

The entire process of eCommerce software development involves multiple steps. Every step has a specific purpose.

Let’s get complete details of all steps of the eCommerce software development process below.

1. Requirement Gathering

Before starting the eCommerce software development process, it’s necessary for the development team to gather details about the project in terms of scope and objectives.

The team and stakeholders sit together to discuss core requirements like user expectations, functional specifications, technical constraints, and more.

2. Designing

The designing phase involves building an architectural blueprint for the project. It includes planning both the UI for a seamless experience and also technical architecture for an efficient data flow and system functionality.

The designing team creates wireframes, mockups, and design specifications. It offers a complete structural and visual reference for the eCommerce software development team.

3. Development

This is a core step and involves coding based on the design. Developers proceed for eCommerce platform development integrating necessary features and functionalities.

They leverage the top programming languages, tools, frameworks, etc., to create and integrate numerous features as specified in the design.

4. Testing

After the completion of the eCommerce software development step, the development team conducts thorough testing to ensure a seamless performance, functionality, usability, and security.

QA specialists implement a variety of tests such as functionality tests, performance tests, etc. These are helpful to find bugs or any technical glitches.

5. Deployment

During the final step of eCommerce software development, the team deploys the software in a live production environment.

It includes various steps such as configuration of servers, setting up databases, and implementation of necessary backup and rollback procedures.

eCommerce Software Development Cost Breakdown

As far as the cost of software development is concerned, it’s not fixed. It gets impacted by numerous factors such as technology stack, project scope, features, the eCommerce website development team’s expertise, and more.

Let’s understand the cost of eCommerce software development in detail.

• Developing eCommerce software on platforms like WooCommerce or Shopify is cheaper compared to custom eCommerce software development solutions. Platform fees range from a hundred to thousands on a yearly basis.
• The cost of customized design ranges from $5,000 to $15,000.
• Implementing features such as a shopping cart, product catalog, order management, and payment gateways costs range from $5,000 to $40,000.
• Creating responsive design or native apps tends to add $10,000 to $40,000.
• Testing and quality assurance may cost from $2,000 to $10,000.
• Ongoing maintenance and support may cost approximately 15 to 20% of the overall eCommerce website development cost annually.

Technologies Used in eCommerce Development

For eCommerce software development, developers leverage a range of technologies that improve user experience, seamless transactions, improve backend operations, and more. Get a detailed overview of some of these technologies;

1. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized many industries – eCommerce is one of those. The technology has revolutionized eCommerce industries in various ways such as customer service chatbots, personalized recommendations, inventory management, and more.

AI has an immense ability to predict demand trends, optimize prices, and boost customer satisfaction. It offers product suggestions based on the browsing history of customers.

2. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are necessary for creating blocks for any website. HTML involves content structure, CSS involves styling content, and JavaScript ensures dynamic interactions. Leveraging these technologies in combination creates visually enticing and responsive websites. These play a vital role in engaging users.

3. Bootstrap

Being a CSS framework, Bootstrap is available with various pre-built templates and components. The technology makes the designing process simple and less time-consuming.

Bootstrap comes with a grid system that ensures a fully responsive design. It reflects the eCommerce software looks perfect on any type of device, be it mobile or desktop.

4. PHP and Python

As a top-rated server-side scripting language, PHP powers various eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Magento. It’s well-known for its higher flexibility and vast integration capabilities. That’s the reason why PHP is considered to be the right choice for building interactive and complex web pages.

When it comes to Python, it’s popular for being simple and also highly versatile. Due to these attributes, Python emerges as a great choice for backend development.

5. MySQL and MongoDB

When it comes to databases, these are important for eCommerce. From product information to customer-related data, the database stores a variety of data.

As a relational database, MySQL is the most preferred among eCommerce developers for its reliability and also fully structured query capabilities. MongoDB is well-known for its flexibility in managing vast and also fully unstructured data with higher efficiency.

6. Serverless Computing

With serverless computing, developers get an option to run code even without managing servers. Many services like Google Cloud Functions and AWS Lambda ensure on-demand and scalable computing.

This is a highly cost-efficient technology and has the ability to improve response times. It lets you manage various high-traffic scenarios.

7. Payment Gateways

Any eCommerce website or mobile application is incomplete without payment gateways. Some of the top payment gateways include PayPal, Stripe, Square, and more.

Developers integrate a highly secured and advanced payment gateway into eCommerce websites or apps to allow safe and smooth transactions. These gateways offer several payment methods, which are necessary to cater to multiple customer preferences.

Things to Consider when Developing E-commerce Software

A strategic approach is necessary for developing a full-fledged eCommerce website. It offers higher operational efficiency and maximum user satisfaction.

We have discussed below some of the top practices for custom eCommerce software development.

1. Create Fast Loading Speed

Website speed is highly important in eCommerce. Users often expect several pages to load fast. If your website takes too much time to load, it causes abandoned carts and lost sales.

One can improve page loading speed by optimizing images, leveraging content delivery networks (CDNs), use of efficient coding practices, and more. A quick-loading website is necessary to boost user experience and also your SEO ranking.

2. Craft Intuitive Navigation

A well-crafted intuitive navigation is another one of eCommerce best practices to facilitate customers to find those products conveniently. You can implement filters, categories, search functionalities, etc. to improve user experience.

An intuitive navigation allows users to locate various items even without putting much effort. You can use breadcrumbs to improve user experience as well.

3. Integrate Multiple Payment Options

Integrating various payment systems into eCommerce websites is another top practice. It is of great importance to maximize conversion rates.

It’s advisable to include multiple payment options such as PayPal, credit/debit cards, digital wallets, etc. This flexibility is necessary to match different customer preferences.

4. Use Attractive Product Images

You should always keep in mind that top-quality images tend to make or break an online sale. It’s always a good idea to use professional photography, which shows products from different angles and in different settings. Implementing Zoom features and video is necessary to let customers have a comprehensive view of the product.

5. Implement Robust Security Systems

eCommerce security is something that is of great importance. You can implement an SSL certificate to protect customer data. It’s necessary to update your software to protect against vulnerabilities. Besides, you can implement some additional safety measures like two-factor authentication to improve user trust.

6. Best Platform Selection

Choosing the right platform is important to develop robust eCommerce software according to your business requirements. You can select the right one among various available options like WooCommerce, Shopify, or Magento. These platforms are popular for being scalable, having unique features, and also easy to use.

How to Choose the Right Software Development Partner?

When you select your eCommerce software development partner, you should check their expertise in leveraging various technologies such as Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.

Make sure you check their portfolio which displays various successful projects that are similar to your projects. You can check their understanding of customer journey optimization user experience (UX) since these play a vital role in increasing conversion rate.

You should never forget to check client testimonials of your eCommerce development partner. When choosing a software development company, keep in mind that they should communicate and collaborate effectively to align with your goals.

Trends in eCommerce Software Development

The eCommerce landscape is emerging fast with the fast-paced advancement in technology and also frequently changing consumer behaviors. So, your business should always follow these latest trends for eCommerce software development to stay ahead in this landscape.

1. Omnichannel Commerce

Today, omnichannel commerce has become one of the major trends since consumers always expect a smooth shopping experience across various channels, be it mobile, or desktop.

An eCommerce software is crafted with the design to support various omnichannel strategies. It helps businesses integrate both their online and offline sales channels.

2. Voice Search

Voice search has become a great aspect of eCommerce software development, especially with the emergence of various voice-activated devices. In today’s time, developers most frequently optimize many eCommerce platforms for voice commands.

It makes it easy for customers to search for products easily, place orders, and navigate sites with the use of simple voice instructions.

3. Personalized Products

When it comes to personalization, it has become the most crucial aspect of eCommerce development. Many advanced eCommerce platforms leverage data analytics and machine learning to offer various personalized product recommendations, customized shopping experiences, tailored marketing messages, and more.

4. Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) has transformed the way customers engage and interact online. With the integration of AR features into eCommerce software, customers can easily see products in their own space and can get an idea of how it appears.

It helps them make a perfect buying decision. It minimizes uncertainty and also improves the confidence of customers.

5. Mobile Commerce

With the increasing usage of mobile devices, mobile commerce is a highly important focus for eCommerce development. Today, eCommerce platforms are mobile-friendly with responsive design, fast loading times, and easy navigation.

6. Flexible Payment Options

It’s quite necessary for eCommerce software to integrate multiple payment methods. Customers of late seek highly flexible and secured payment options.

Developers nowadays frequently implement payment methods such as digital wallets, BNPL, cryptocurrency, etc. to make eCommerce software meaningful.

7. Subscription Models

The subscription model has gained a huge acceptance with businesses providing several products and services on a recurring basis. Many eCommerce platforms adapt to support subscription-based billing and offer customers great convenience. It ensures a great revenue stream for businesses.

8. Marketing Automation

As far as marketing tools are concerned, these have become an important part of eCommerce software. These tools can improve marketing efforts, which facilitate businesses to engage various customizers with the help of personalized emails, retargeting campaigns, social media ads, and more.

AI in eCommerce Software Development

AI has made a major impact on the eCommerce industry by improving customer experience. It has redefined the way eCommerce business functions. It helps eCommerce businesses offer personalized product recommendations, which increases conversion rates.

Chatbots developed with AI can offer quick customer support, address various queries, and boost overall satisfaction. ML models are useful to optimize inventory management with the prediction of demand trends, minimizing waste, costs, etc.

Conclusion

So, above is complete information regarding eCommerce development. You are now all set to proceed for eCommerce platform development. Before you proceed finally, you need to be clear about everything about the type of products you wish to sell, market scenario, etc. It helps you make the right strategy and also proceed in the right direction.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. How Long Does It Take to Develop a Custom eCommerce Site?

Custom eCommerce software development generally takes between 4 to 8 months or even longer. It depends on the level of customization you need. Factors such as design requirements, complexity of features, size of the product catalog, and more also impact the overall time of custom eCommerce software development.

2. Should I Choose a Custom-Built eCommerce Solution or A SaaS Platform?

Well, whether you should select a SaaS platform or a custom eCommerce software development depends on your business requirements and budget.

Custom eCommerce software development solutions are available with tailored features and higher flexibility and require a higher investment. On the other hand, SaaS platforms offer scalability, fast setup, less upfront cost, etc.

3. Can I Add Custom Features to My eCommerce Platform Later?

Yes, you can add various custom features to your eCommerce platform later. All you need to do is to use the platform that offers flexibility and scalability. It should allow future improvement in the growth of your business.

4. What Security Measures Are Essential for eCommerce Platforms?

You can implement various advanced security measures to secure your eCommerce platforms. Some of these security measures include SSL certificates, CDN, multi-factor authentication (MFA), DDoS protection, regular site updates, and more.

5. What Are the Hidden Costs of eCommerce Development?

Well, hidden costs in eCommerce development include payment processing charges, ongoing maintenance fees, hosting expenses, and more. Besides, expenses related to SEO optimization, website security, and compliance with regulations can also add up to hidden eCommerce software costs.

6. Is It Possible to Migrate from A SaaS eCommerce Platform to A Custom-Built Solution?

Yes, it’s possible to migrate from a SaaS eCommerce platform to a custom-built solution. It’s beneficial for those businesses looking to have great control and scalability. The migration process includes analyzing current functionalities, data migration, and creating tailored solutions that match specific requirements.