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Innovation Origins regularly brings you tips and tools from around the world of tech. Today, we focus on the importance of implementing an e-commerce website for your business, especially in times of Corona. And although much of what we describe may be performed by the business owner, there is reason to leave this work to the specialists. An e-commerce site implemented by an experienced agency will allow you to increase the reach of your business, collect detailed customer data, and provide your potential customers with increased choice.

The Benefits

An e-commerce website allows you another way to reach a wider customer base, offer convenient shopping opportunities for potential customers, and allow customers to shop 24/7. An e-commerce site is a great way to expand your business and an experienced web design company will implement an effective e-commerce strategy for your online store, which should incorporate everything from effective social media and SEO to email marketing and tracking via an email reporting tool.

One of the direct advantages of an e-commerce site is that it provides great opportunities to capture lead emails and customer shopping data in a format that is easy to use and analyze. It’s essential for contacting and engaging customers regularly as part of your marketing strategy. An e-commerce store also makes it much easier to record the buying habits of your customers. You’ll be able to track bought items, the number of items used, and the activities of each visitor to your site. This will give you important customer information. 

One of the biggest positives for an e-commerce site is the volume of traffic that can be achieved through search engines. Search Engine Optimisation and great web design allow you to target your customer base much more easily. Through engaging content, product descriptions, social media, and web design, an e-commerce site will increase your customer engagement in a way not possible with solely a physical retail store.

Professional E-Commerce Design

The benefits of an e-commerce site to a retailer are clear, but it can often seem challenging to develop and implement a successful e-commerce site on your website. Using a professional for website design will allow you to develop a site that’s user friendly, engaging, and with multiple opportunities to track customer data. Professional web designers will develop a stand-out, easy to navigate e-commerce site that has customer experience at its core. 

Although e-commerce sites can be created with cookie-cutter websites, developing your own custom site with services like Shopify will provide you with a unique store that will work for your business. Most importantly, they will be able to create a site that allows a customer to buy an item in as few clicks as possible, essential for encouraging an easy customer experience and return purchases. 

What To Expect When Working With A Web Designer

Agencies will work closely with your brand, capturing the brand essence, and implementing an online marketing strategy that works. But how exactly does this process work? 

A web design company will carefully plan and implement your web design. For successful web design, information gathering, discovery, and analysis are essential steps in the process. 

Information gathering is crucial to collect information about your business, your customer base, and the ultimate goal for the website. As part of this, an analysis of your current website or strategy will also take place. This process will ideally happen face-to-face, but video or phone calls are also used. An experienced web design company will run through detailed project briefs with you to make sure everyone is literally on the same page. 

Following information gathering, the discovery process then takes place. This will allow a thorough understanding of your client base, desired audience, project scope, e-commerce requirements, and timescales, as well as making the budget clear. Once the planning phase is complete, the web design agency will present their concepts and proposals. This will include a clear plan and strategy to achieve your aims, as well as making any requirements and timescales clear.  

At the proposal stage, any changes or preferences from the client are discussed and fed back to the designer. Once the designs have been agreed upon and signed off, the web designer moves into the development stage.

Launch Your Site

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Following the sign off of the design and direction, the next stage is to develop your site. As with the briefing and information gathering stage, client feedback is crucial here, so the web agency will work with you closely for feedback. At the development stage, a site wireframe is developed with basic web page elements including navigation, effective color combinations and widgets. This wireframe will be able to give you an initial impression of the design concept, so you’ll be able to check you’re happy with the design at every stage. 

At this stage, your brand and any corporate logos or colors will be integrated to ensure a consistent image on your site with any other marketing materials. Your web design agency will then develop the code needed to make the website live and work. This stage in development is often the longest, as it also includes testing and optimizing the site. 

Once you’re happy with the development of your website, it’s time for the live launch. As part of the design process, you will be shown how to use and manage your site, leaving you confident in the running of the site. After the development and launch of your new website, maintenance is also an essential part of the process to keep it running well. 

SEO

Finally, you need to be found online. There, too, some professional help can be a solution. A company specializing in web design will be able to work either with an existing e-commerce store you have or create a completely brand new store. Key to an e-commerce site is an effective SEO strategy that drives traffic, and working with a professional web agency will provide you with a clear, strong SEO content strategy that is integral to your marketing strategy. Moreover, if you already have an e-commerce site that isn’t working as you’d expect, then a web agency will develop a coherent and effective e-commerce action plan to improve your business.