E-commerce Website Design

E-commerce Website Design & Development Services

E-commerce website design & development is something I do for clients, from small “mom and pop” online stores upwards…

E-commerce Website Design Costs

In any e-commerce project, the inherent complexity means that there is a significant investment of time involved;

• Installation and configuration of shopping cart software
• Adding graphic elements to individualise the base package
• Installation and configuration of payment gateways
• Establishing Shipping Rates
• Adding Categories and Products

Online Store Costs: start from $2995

• Unlimited Categories and Products
• Unlimited Pages
• Payment Gateways
• 1yr Domain Registration & Hosting
• E-commerce Solutions

There are a myriad of e-commerce software options to pick from, complicated by costs and the choice of hosted versus stand-alone;

To complicate this more, some applications can be either hosted or stand-alone –  like Magento. There are also add-on e-commerce applications for particular CMS (Content Management Systems) – three such examples being;

1. Ubercart for Drupal
2. Virtuemart for Joomla
3. Woocommerce for WordPress (Woocommerce review)

Making an informed choice of website redesign packages is difficult… Picking the right option 1st time has the potential to save you lots of money – conversely, getting it wrong can be disastrous!

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Remote vs Self-Hosted

Some shopping cart programs can be purchased as stand-alone programs or as pay-per-month services hosted on another company’s server. Remotely-hosted options usually allow for extensive customization of pages to fit in with your site’s look and feel. That’s where an experienced freelance website redesign specialist guides you into making good decisions.

Remote Hosting Pros

• Fast implementation, secure (SSL) connection supplied and monitoring of services are part of the package. The cart is hosted on THEIR server. Remotely-hosted shopping carts are total marketing solutions containing options to run affiliate programs and the ability to send sequential pre-defined messages to clients and leads. They also include multiple payment gateway services and sometimes, even an Internet merchant account!
• For extensive features but without a multi-thousand-dollar upfront expenditure, remotely hosted e-commerce can be a good option.
• Costs range upward from US$60 per month but you should compare prices carefully. Recurrent expenditure needs to be taken into account when determining accurate pricing of your product range.

Remote Hosting Cons

• What happens if the company goes into receivership, or ceases trading overnight? That will leave you crippled, without access to your records and possibly with no way to export your information to another system!

Local Hosting Pros

• You have total control over the e-commerce software, and there are no ongoing monthly fees. Usually, you’ll have a web designer/developer implementing the system for you. If there is any dispute or separation – you can easily contract another designer in to take over…

Local Hosting Cons

• The greater initial input of development time spent in installation, configuration and maintenance means a greater initial financial outlay.

There are many considerations to assess prior to deciding on the best shopping cart software for your particular needs, budget and goals. Of course, the shopping cart must also have a fully functional payment gateway module that routes funds to your Internet merchant account…

E-commerce Website Design Solutions

There are a myriad of e-commerce applications, shopping cart solutions, add-ons and plugins… How to choose one that works, let alone the one that’s right for you?

osCommerce / Zen Cart / CRE Reloaded

osCommerce, Zen Cart and CRE Reloaded are three very well-known and frequently used e-commerce web design packages. These are Open Source software applications, all based originally on the core osCommerce shopping cart software solution.

• They are robust, and have a huge range of utilities (known as Contributions or Modifications) that extend their basic functionality and make it into an incredibly powerful e-commerce system.
• Whilst “free” there is significant development costs in installation, configuration, and addition of Contributions.

Of the 3 options, osCommerce has the broadest base of developers, users, forums and contributors. It’s bullet-proof, highly customisable and a good choice for a shop of any size. You WILL need a lot of technical support and development to make it work well for you.

Cube Cart E-commerce

Cube Cart is another popular shopping cart contender. Whilst it’s not Open Source (free) it is very modestly priced considering its feature-rich performance straight out of the box.

• It’s easier for a non-technical user to add products and edit content than osCommerce or its derivatives.
• Built-in SEO functionality includes SE-friendly URLs and meta-tag control down to the Product level
• There are limits to extended functionality when compared to osC
• There are fewer payment gateway modules available

PrestaShop E-Commerce

PrestaCart is a newer kid on the block but overall, its impressive feature set makes is a great choice! If you’re planning a small shop on a tight budget, it’s hard to find a better choice to start with. It’s scalable, there’s a busy community forum, and theme development from many sources.

WordPress Woocommerce

There are many plugin e-commerce applications that competent WordPress website redesign services can turn into an excellent shopping cart solution. There are also several “hosted e-commerce” solution providers that provide plugins that allow you to have an external e-commerce system operating within your standalone site…

Your E-commerce Website Design

We can provide you with sound advice based on your particular goals and circumstances… We’ve got the skills and experience to implement an e-commerce website package to match your needs and budgetary constraints. Not only that but one that has a properly mobile responsive design that is fast loading on all devices.

Contact the web design agency that gets things done on time – let us give you a no-obligation website redesign proposal for your E-commerce website design;

E-commerce References:

• CBS News Planning and implementing an e-commerce strategy
• Devrix – 10 easy e-commerce strategies that help reach customers

Page last Updated on 21st October 2023 by the author Ben Kemp