Building an Ecommerce Website: Expectations vs Reality

By now, everyone is aware that online businesses lead the charge when it comes to modern commerce. In this day in age, in order to be an operating business, it is almost imperative to have not only a fully functioning website, but also a website that is also visually appealing in order to successfully promote your website. While most people have a basic understanding of the necessity of a website, there are many common misconceptions when it comes to the process of actually developing a website.

Expectation: “I Need a Developer to Build My Website”

With an abundance of choices pertaining to certain functions you are able to have incorporated on your eCommerce website, to all of the particular design options that can be implemented, all on top of building the actual website, it seems like starting an online business can leave you with a big headache. It can feel like an unachievable task to have to handle both the moving parts of your business and then worry about the upkeep of your online business, especially if you are more or less on your own. Due to this assumption, people are often left with the expectation that they need to hire a professional website developer to start their online business.

Reality: Many Platforms Make it Easy to Design Your Website Exactly How You Like It

You can actually be your own website developer and build your site just the way like it with little to no code required. Implementing tools on your site that create a better experience for your visitors, while also emphasizing the significance of your products or services, is relatively easy to do across many different platforms. Some popular platforms such as Shopify, Wix, and Bigcommerce for example, offer thousands of different app choices that have the ability to be fully customizable to best fit your needs.

Successful website marketing can be achieved by adding features including, but not limited to, apps such as pop ups, form builders, or by using design features like animated text, or images to your site. At the end of the day, your customers come to your site to accomplish a specific goal they have in mind and by giving them several options of ways to interact, they will more than likely have that great positive experience.

Expectation: “My Platform Will Limit What I Can Do”

You want to do it all: attract new customers, promote your website, and ultimately increase your sales. Yet, with so many ideas bouncing around in your brain, on top of having a distinct vision of how you want your website to function and what you want it to look like, it’s understandable feeling worried that the platform you choose may not be able to tick all those meticulous little boxes.

Reality: Most Platforms Have 3rd Party Marketplaces that Make Your Possibilities Endless

These days, possibilities are endless when you build your eCommerce website on most any platform. There are plenty of apps that can be edited on the front end of your website with a user-friendly interface. While there are often functions within the app that come at a premium cost, more often than not, there are great free functions on the apps that can sufficiently customize your website exactly how you want it.

Additionally, these 3rd party marketplaces offer customizable apps that work across all platforms. For instance, our POWR apps are not only offered across all platforms like Shopify, Wix, and Bigcommerce, but your designs can be “copied and pasted” onto these different platforms without having to make any adjustments. Not only do you have the ability to customize your site exactly to your liking (and possibly even better than you’d first ever imagined), but it is relatively painless and easy too, making it a reality to make your website as unique as you want it.

Expectation: “Once it’s Built, I’m All Done”

Great, you did it! You adopted a platform to build your website on, designed it to your liking using customizable apps from 3rd party marketplaces, and published your site to make it go live. But now what?

Reality: You Should Always Be Optimizing For Better Results

Just like having a new baby, you need to nurture, provide attention, and ensure that your new eCommerce website is healthy. Letting your site sit without constant updates can result in having outdated content, old designs, or even lead your shoppers to misinformation. A product or service that may have been listed when your website was first published, may no longer be available, yet customers have no way of knowing this if there is no consistent website upkeep. You must always continue to make sure it functions optimally and stays up to date with the constantly changing web standards, trends and tech advances. Regular edits and updates will also help your website search engine rankings since it basically reads your site as active, and boots your relevance. The strive to obtain new customers for your online business should always be top priority; the push for new customers does not just stop once you hit “publish”. If you’re looking for more help to attract new customers, check out our ebook 7 Tips for Turning Website Visitors into Customers eBook to learn how to skyrocket your web sales.

After debunking some common misconceptions that exist when creating an eCommerce website for your business, it is important to understand what comes next after your site has been published. As a store owner, your work will never be over as there will always be changes that need to be made in order to increase your conversions and produce more sales. Needless to say, having a fully functioning website is essential to modern business, so it is imperative that you create the best working, and looking, website you possibly can. If you are just getting started, download our free eBook to help you progress online. Also check out POWR’s 60+ free website apps that will help grow your online business.