How to Build an eCommerce Website from Scratch (Step-by-Step Guide)

Read this blog if you have no coding experience and you are:

1. A retailer or manufacturer looking to develop an online store
2. Owner of a brick-and-mortar store and want to expand the business online
3. Someone who wants to develop a 3P (third-party platform) that connects buyers and sellers

According to Statista, in 2021, retail eCommerce sales of physical goods increased to almost 32,442 million USD and are projected to increase by 40,352 million USD in 2025.

So, if you’re planning to start an eCommerce business for the first time and want to know how to build an eCommerce website from scratch without coding experience, So, here are the steps to build e-commerce website

How to Build an eCommerce Website from Scratch

In this section, we will understand how to build an e-commerce website with step-by-step approach.

Let’s start with step 1.

1. Identify Target Audience for Your Online Store

   

   Selling the right product to the right customer is a key to a successful online business. But, if you don’t know who your customers are, how will you identify their needs?

   To identify your target audience for your online store, look for your local competitors who are selling the same products. Then, understand your competitor’s marketing strategies, identify their customers and perform local marketing to grow your customer base.

   Which Factors Help to Identify the Target Audience?

   The following parameters are used to define the target audience for your eCommerce site.

   • Age
   • Gender
   • Location
   • Income

   For Instance: A 40-year-old woman living in Toronto holding the degree of fashion stylist with an income of $8000-$10000 loves luxury brands and designer clothes.

   Another Example: If you’re selling exclusive products for kids, your target audience can be children, mothers, or teachers.

2. How to Define Your Target Audience for Your eCommerce Site?

   1. Create user personas by researching the audience, identifying the pain points, needs, passion, and goals.
   2. Understand who is NOT your target audience. For example, if you own a brand like Sephora, then definitely MEN is not a target audience.
   3. Figure out who needs your product and who is likely to buy your product.

   For instance: Vans is an American manufacturer of skateboarding shoes based in California. Their shoes come in appealing colors and designs, which attract a wide range of consumers. To reach the right target audience, Vans have different Instagram accounts for males and females. This shows the company’s clear understanding of marketing to multiple target audiences.

3. Buy the Right Domain Name for Your eCommerce Website

   

   Once you have researched the target audience and competitors and identified the products, you’re going to sell, purchase the domain name for your online store. A domain name is the address of your online store, from where your audience can search your store. So, for example, in the web address: www.amazon.ca, “amazon.ca” is the domain name.

   Selecting the right domain name adds credibility to your business. It is recommended to make your domain name the same as a physical store. However, if you do not get the required name, pick a name similar to your brand. Let’s understand how to choose a domain name and popular domain name registrars in Canada.

   Quick Tips: How to Choose a Domain Name?

   1. Keep a name unique, short, and memorizable
   2. Make it easy to pronounce and spell
   3. Avoid numbers
   4. Use the right domain name extensions
   5. Easy to pronounce

   Which are the Popular Domain Name Registrars in Canada?

   1. GoDaddy
   2. Bluehost
   3. Web Hosting Canada
   4. CanSpace
   5. HostPapa

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4. Choose Development Platform for Your eCommerce Website

   

   Once you have identified the right domain, choose the right platform for your eCommerce site that fits your requirements.

   You can develop an eCommerce website in two ways:

   a) Custom eCommerce Website Development: Developed with the help of dedicated eCommerce web developers

   b) SaaS Platforms: Ready-made eCommerce website builders like BigCommerce, 3dcart, and Shopify

   Both the methods have their pros and cons; choose the one per your target audience, complexity, and price structure.

   But, first, let’s understand both platforms.

   A) Custom eCommerce Website Development

   Customized eCommerce website development means designing solutions as per the specific business needs. An eCommerce developer or eCommerce website development company helps you develop a website using the latest technology stack, advanced tools, and plugins.

   Since web development companies have experience working in the competitive market, rest assured of getting the best results. So, if you want to build an eCommerce website from scratch, leading development companies can create a custom eCommerce website structure to give you an enhanced online shopping experience.

   Moreover, devote your time to core business operations rather than managing the entire website. When you develop a customized eCommerce website, you have complete control over the source code and you get scalable eCommerce project architecture.

   Advantages and Disadvantages of a Customized eCommerce Website Development

   Easily connect with the support team to solve the issues

   Advantages	Disadvantages
   Flexibility through customization	Increased programming work and complexity
   Flexible e-Commerce hosting	Difficult to find a trustworthy hosting provider
   Community support
   Faster updates and faster time-to-market
   Third-party plugins are available

   B) SaaS Platforms

   SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) is a software licensing model where software is accessed via the internet and hosted on the cloud. The SaaS eCommerce software helps build the online store without much technical knowledge or coding skills; all you need is a stable internet connection.

   However, data security, compliance, and transparency are issues that most companies face with the website builders or SaaS model.

   So you need to select the right eCommerce website builder that is flexible and easy to manage.

   However, there are 104 different website builder tools available in the market currently, making it challenging to choose the platform that fulfills the needs and is within the budget.

   We have listed the most recommended platforms, making it easy for you to choose an eCommerce solution.

   e-Commerce Website Builders	Free Plan or Free Trial	Basic Price	Features
   	14 days free trial	$12	Template customization Blogging Scheduling software Photo galleries Podcast hosting
   	Free plan	$14	Customizable Designs Free and Reliable Hosting Optimized Mobile View One-Pagers Drag n’ Drop Website Editor Image Editor
   	14 days free trial	$29	Shopify payments Shopify analytics Fulfillment Fraud analysis Manual order correction Discount connection

   Advantages and Disadvantages of Website Builders

   No special software is required

   Advantages	Disadvantages
   Less learning curve	Limited design control
   No coding knowledge is required	You don’t technically own your website
   Shorter time to build	Fewer ways to optimize
   Free templates are provided	Latency, security and scalability issues
   Easy to buy	Switching between SaaS vendors is difficult

   We have listed the advantages and limitations of both custom eCommerce web development and SaaS platforms. So now which is one to select? Let’s find out.

   Customized eCommerce Platform or SaaS eCommerce: Which Platform to Select?

   Deciding between customized eCommerce or SaaS eCommerce depends on business needs, budget, and resources.

   Choose a customized eCommerce platform if

   • You want to integrate a complex features like QR code, voice search, image search, and AR/VR features.
   • You want your store to be secured and updated with the latest security standards.
   • You want to have total control over your data and you do not want to compromise with your data and its security.
   • You want to build a scalable solution that grow with the audience and yet fast and secure.

   Choose a SaaS platform if

   • You do not have extensive features and you don’t need much customization in your website.
   • You have a very limited budget and looking for a no-coding solution.

   After choosing the right eCommerce platform for web development, let’s consider the key features to implement in your eCommerce store.

   Core Features to Implement in eCommerce Website

   Here is a list of core features that you must have in your eCommerce website.

   Features	Reason to Implement
   Shopping Cart	To maintain the clean and organized record of your potential orders
   User-friendly Interface	The UX/UI should be optimized to work on all mobile devices and desktop
   Social Integration	Allow your users to share the deals with their friends
   Security Systems	For saving your website from lucrative attacks and securing user’s data
   Offers and Discounts	Help your users to find some great deals available
   Wishlist	Allow your usres to add products for future purchase
   Related Items	To provide personalized and AI-based recommendation in addition to an item your customer is viewing
   FAQs	Answers the most common customer problems for buying a product, refunds, orders, and payments
   Customer Reviews	Builds trust and authenticity to the seller’s product

   Apart from this, you can even get MVP (minimum viable product) developed by a software development company to create your own eCommerce website. With MVP, you launch your website with minimum features and test the feasibility of your custom eCommerce site development.

   Want to know more about MVP? Here’s a complete guide on what is MVP?

5. Designing Your Online Store

   

   Well-placed visual elements, graphics, and readable texts make your website visually appealing, conversion-focused, and establish your brand presence.

   If you choose to customize your eCommerce store, you need web designers or web designing companies to design your eCommerce store. An experienced web designing professional knows how to align the logo, colors, fonts, images, and other visual elements that show your brand identity.

   You can even hire our UI/UX designer team, as we have experience designing UI across different industry verticals like entertainment, sports, healthcare, fitness, and education. To know how we design UI, check our video-sharing eCommerce app and on-demand ride sharing app.

   If you have selected eCommerce website builders or SaaS platforms, you have to choose the theme and categorize your product. If you are building an eCommerce website from scratch, customize the template by designing it in a way that is attractive and easy to read. Your displayed product should be clear and concise.

   You can modify eCommerce website as per the preferences:

   • Text size, color, and font
   • Colour of the theme
   • Use of images
   • Product’s position
   • Logo and branding
   • About us and contact us page

   You have understood how to design your eCommerce store, let’s even know the reasons to design a compelling eCommerce store, and tips to design an aesthetic eCommerce store.

   Quick Tips: How to Design an eCommerce Website

   1. Keep your website neat and clutter-free
   2. Include review and testimonial section
   3. Make it easy to navigate
   4. Use high-quality photos
   5. Keep the product pages organized
   6. Make your website mobile-friendly
   7. Make your content scalable
   8. Spend time on branding
   9. Use a color palette
   10. Maintains a visual flow

   Want to get more design tips? We have curated a PDF to know what things to keep in mind while designing a product page, listing page, and home page.

   Until here, you have got the idea to build an eCommerce website from scratch; let’s understand the important eCommerce functionality, i.e., payment gateway.

6. Adding Payment Integration to Your eCommerce Website

   

   Once you have designed and developed an eCommerce website from scratch, integrate a payment gateway to accept the online payment from the customers.

   What is a payment gateway?
   A payment gateway refers to software that interfaces between eCommerce websites and customers’ preferred mode of payment like a bank account, debit card, credit card, or other online wallets.

   If you choose a customized eCommerce online store development, web developers integrate the payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and Braintree with the help of APIs and SDKs. The software development vendor will cover specific eCommerce business requirements as per your target audience and needs.

   Moreover, setting up payment integration as per your choice will help add features like auto recurring payment and loyalty programs as per the data analytics of your target audience. It is secured, safe, and reliable but takes more time to develop.

   SaaS platforms like Magento, Shopify, and Wix offer in-built payment gateways which enable you to integrate your stores with payment service providers. It is easy, safe, reliable, and takes less time to integrate; however, in some cases, SaaS eCommerce platforms lack the ability of extreme customization and don’t give you access to the software codes.

   Now you know how to integrate the payment gateway when you build an eCommerce website from scratch. Let’s discuss the most used payment gateways and how it works.

   Which are the Most Used Payment Gateways in Canada?

   1. Adyen
   2. Blue Snap
   3. Google Pay
   4. Stripe
   5. Braintree
   6. Authorize.net
   7. NMI

   What are the Types of Pricing Structure in the Payment Gateway?

   Payment gateways have different pricing type as follow:

   1. Setup fees
   2. Monthly fees
   3. Integration fees
   4. Maintenance fees

   Let’s move to step number 6 now, the final step.

7. Test and Launch Your eCommerce Website

   

   Once you develop the website, test it on the multiple platforms, and launch your eCommerce website.

   If you have hired an eCommerce testing team or custom software development company, they will complete the entire website by performing various testing such as unit testing, device testing, and functional testing depending on the needs of the business.

   However, if you’re developing an eCommerce website from scratch with the help of a website builder, it is recommended to preview the complete website before launching and ensure that all the web controls work as they should be.

   Consider These 5 Points During the Testing Process

   • Products, descriptions, and images should be aligned as per your customer’s convenience
   • Check the website on different browsers and devices and check if all the features are available
   • Test all the payment gateways and check discounts and promotions are applied as intended
   • Ensure web controls and links are directed at the right place
   • Run sample purchases to make sure that the shopping cart is working properly

   Your eCommerce site is officially ready to launch in the market. Upgrade your eCommerce website at regular intervals by adding features, customizing design, description, and images.

   This not only enhances the shopping experience of your eCommerce store but also increases customer loyalty. You can even connect with a reliable web development vendor like us who has experience developing enterprise-level websites.

You know how to launch your eCommerce website from scratch now.

But, we are still missing one of the most important points – website design and development cost.

When you read the next step, you won’t have further questions regarding website development cost.

How Much Does It Cost to Build an eCommerce Website from Scratch?

The cost depends on various factors like features, site functionality, and the size of the website.

If you have advanced features in mind, want to get a personalized quote for your idea, get in touch with us. Our web developers have experience of creating custom eCommerce website from scratch. We know the required features. We know the cost. Get a complete bifurcation of cost to develop your online store. Know the budget you might require for eCommerce website development or ecommerce app development.

You are now clear with the development cost and steps to create an eCommerce website solution, let’s quickly go through the guidelines you should keep in mind while developing an eCommerce store.

Fundamental eCommerce Usability Guidelines

• Make sure your navigation structure is simplified
• Show multiple product deals instead of either having one or two items on the homepage of your best eCommerce website
• Ensure that you use the right color combination, font size, and font color
• Be sure that the ‘Add to Cart’ button is clear, vibrant, and conspicuous relative to other product pages and site functionality
• Pick the correct typography and recruit experienced developers to create the best eCommerce website for robust results and brand image
• Study customer psychology, eCommerce website examples, and online store business strategies to make great eCommerce design elements
• Make sure that your eCommerce website loads quickly and is mobile friendly

After developing your eCommerce store, you need to market your store to expand your user base. You need to have a strategic and innovative online sales approach to increase your online presence.

Market Your Online Store

Only building a webshop is not enough; you need to market your online store to get a return on investment. With your online store, you will be able to reach more online customers and will have complete control over their shopping experience. If you are a start-up and want to grow your online stores like Walmart, Metro, or Home Depot; you need to market your eCommerce store locally to build an online presence.

To market your eCommerce store, you need promotional marketing strategies to increase online traffic, convert leads into paying customers and retain customers post-purchase.

Let’s understand in what ways you can market your online eCommerce store.

Want to know more about eCommerce website development? Check out the frequently asked questions.

Ready to Build Your eCommerce Store from Scratch?

If you’re the retailer or manufacturer or brick-and-mortar store that wants to increase the profitability of the brand and build an online presence in the provinces of Canada, this is the right time to leverage the online marketplace.

If you have an eCommerce idea, then our team of experienced eCommerce web development specialists will help build an online business. Connect with us to know how we help you to make an eCommerce website.