Outsourcing E-commerce Website Development

What is e-commerce?

In a broad sense, the term e-commerce refers to the whole spectrum of commercial transactions carried out on the Internet. This term can be applied to any site intended for making money. Moreover, this definition refers to the vast majority of sites. Thus, e-сommerce should be understood as e-business – any kind of activity that uses information systems and global data transmission networks. There is also a narrower definition of e-commerce: an action that involves receiving money from a customer for a service or product, in other words, simple trading over the Internet.

E-commerce can be divided into two categories: B2C – “business- customer” and B2B – “business- business.” The basic model of B2C trade type is retail Internet shops, which represent a developed structure for satisfying consumer demand. Thus, e-commerce website development is the starting point of e-commerce development.

The main model of B2C is retail online stores, which technically represent a combination of electronic storefronts and a trading system.

E-commerce is beneficial for all participants of the electronic market: producers, customers, and sellers. The principal factors that determine the main advantages of e-commerce are lower prices, time savings, and availability of direct contact.

According to a short version of the analytical study of the world Internet trading market (B2C) for 2015-2016 published by EcommerceWiki, the diagram of the e-commerce market shows that in 2015 the largest share of sales in this segment is occupied by China, namely, 33.7%. The USA ranks second with 26.2%, followed by Great Britain (7.7%) and Japan (5.0%).

What about e-commerce web development?

The web application development includes the development of web design of the graphical user interface, by using related technologies; programming on the client side; server-side programming; and market analysis. Custom web application development is the joint work of many specialists – designers, managers, programmers, marketers.

Usually, e-commerce web design services include:

analytics – a collection of data about the client company, business processes, competitors, etc.;
study of marketing data and concept development;
selection of site functions and analysis of their compliance with the solution of business tasks;
upgrading of a site prototype and content planning;
development of CSS-design of the site (formatting), HTML-design (structuring);
debugging, launching, and testing of content management systems.

Having determined the range of work, the next step is to understand who to delegate them. The first way is hiring in-house specialists. And second is outsourcing an e-commerce website development. If your website doesn’t require constant updates and maintenance your option is an e-commerce website outsourcing.

A freelance web designer or an outsourcing website development company?

If you want to hire a web developer, ask a certified specialist for help. The best option would be a freelancer, from whom you or your friends already ordered the development of the site. When working with the remote developer:

be sure to review customer feedback, rank and statistics of the remote expert;
do not exclude the possibility of contractual relations, this will give you small insurance.

The indisputable advantage of the development company is a complex approach to creating websites. The essence of this is that the process of creating a website is divided among specialists, and each of them performs its own highly specialized work. Thus, the development company can guarantee the creation of a site at the highest level, which cannot be guaranteed by a freelancer. In addition, the comprehensive approach of the web studio implies not only the qualitative development of the site but also the further support and development of your resource, which is another important advantage of the development company.

The bottom line

Having a good website for online businesses is as important as an attractive shop-window for offline shops. That’s why e-commerce owners should take seriously the creation of a user-friendly and SEO-optimized website. This task requires the involvement of different high-paid specialists (e.g. analysts, designers, developers, etc.). The easiest way to enlist such a team of professionals to your project is to hire a company focused on outsource e-commerce development. Their expertise and experience will help you to get the job done faster and will save you money comparing to other options (s.a. in-house team and freelancers).

Those who think about the outsourcing of e-commerce website development might consider also hiring platforms that unite vetted outsourcing companies that offer e-commerce website development.

On YouTeam’s website you may leave the requirements for your web project and get in touch with our sourcing team who will collect the matching profiles of developers available to start next week. The whole process from finding the right developers to the contract signature sometimes takes less than one week!

Browse E-commerce Developers Available

Author: OpenGeeksLab Editorial Team.

OpenGeeksLab is a software development firm that focuses on the creation of custom software solutions for multinational corporate clients in Europe and North America.