COMPREHENSIVE JOURNEY TO BUILDING ECOMMERCE WEBSITE
Table of Contents
As consumer shopping trends shift from offline to online, owning an ecommerce website (EC) is almost a prerequisite for successful business operations. Despite its importance, many businesses are still unsure where to start to build an effective EC website.
Here is a step-by-step journey to building an EC website from basic to advanced for businesses to refer to!
PHASE 1: BUILDING A BASIC ECOMMERCE WEBSITE
When entering the ecommerce market, businesses often build a basic-level ecommerce website to minimize time and budget for website development and gradually adapt to market changes.
Choose a platform to build the website
Businesses can use free website-building tools with ready-made interfaces and features to create a website through simple drag-and-drop operations, without investing too much time and budget in website development and programming. Some popular platforms include Sapo, Haravan, Nhanh.web.
Advantages
- Various ready-made interfaces suitable for different industries and sectors.
- Basic features provided, such as managing product data, prices, images/videos, sales tracking, payment, shipping, marketing, customer management, inventory management, and reporting/analysis.
- Diverse payment methods: COD, card payment, e-wallet.
- Integration with common shipping services: GHN, GHTK, Ninja Van.
Reasonable initial deployment costs with a contract based on usage time.
Disadvantages
- Additional costs may be incurred to use extensions or develop new features for the system.
- Limited customization capability, making it challenging to create a unique brand identity.
- Low flexibility: Difficulty integrating with third-party systems or CRM, ERP, BI…
Design the interface and build functional systems on the chosen platform
Businesses use ready-made templates on the platform and customize them to fit the brand image, industry, and consumer preferences. The chosen platforms offer basic features, and businesses only need to select suitable functions and set them up on the website.
Provide payment and shipping services
- During the ecommerce website development process, businesses need to work with service providers to offer payment and shipping services.
- Common online payment gateways in Vietnam include Paypal, Ngan Luong, VNPay, Airpay, and e-wallets like Momo, ZaloPay.
- Reputable shipping providers in Vietnam include Giao Hang Tiet Kiem, Giao Hang Nhanh, VNPost, ViettelPost.
Complete legal procedures with the Ministry of Industry and Trade
According to Government Decree 52/2013/ND-CP, individuals or organizations that own ecommerce websites for selling goods must notify or register with the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the Ecommerce Management Information Portal.
PHASE 2: TRANSITION TO A SPECIALIZED ECOMMERCE WEBSITE PLATFORM
After using a basic ecommerce website for some time, businesses gradually realize the need to develop an independent, in-depth, and uniquely designed ecommerce website to promote a sustainable ecommerce journey.
Developing a specialized ecommerce website requires both experience and substantial investment in costs and time. However, this is a cost-effective solution for long-term business plans and a suitable transition for a separate and comprehensive ecommerce system.
Choose a platform to build the website
At this stage, businesses can choose specialized e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, which are scalable and customizable to maximize the requirements of:
- Open-source e-commerce platforms allow flexible customization according to needs.
- Support customization of the interface to match the brand’s unique style.
- Own a diverse range of functions from basic to advanced.
- Easily integrate with popular shipping and payment providers.
- Manage multiple systems such as CRM, ERP, BI on one screen.
- Easily develop specialized e-commerce functions, especially features related to industry-specific characteristics, brand development, and optimizing customer experience.
- Actively update and quickly develop new features and technologies.
- Flexible and easy integration with in-house systems and third-party systems such as payment, shipping, ecommerce platforms, CRM, ERP, BI…
However, implementing a specialized e-commerce website may face some difficulties:
- High costs and prolonged deployment time.
- Require a skilled and experienced IT team for effective implementation.
Select a website development service provider
When building an ecommerce website on specialized platforms, as it requires time, costs, and high expertise, businesses often collaborate with service providers for ecommerce website development. Afterward, businesses can build an in-house team or continue working with the provider to maintain website operations.
Some service providers for deploying specialized ecommerce systems include SECOMM, SmartOSC, Co-well Asia, Isobar, Magenest.
Develop the ecommerce website
During project deployment based on the agreed solution with the development provider, all factors related to the quality and effectiveness of the website need to be optimized and tested before handover. Especially crucial functions include:
- Category Management: Control data, functions, attributes, prices, inventory, images, and videos of products.
- Content Management: Develop and optimize content for CMS pages, store images, customize themes, and website design.
- Sales Management: Control and operate sales processes, orders, payments, and shipping.
- Marketing Management: Support building and implementing marketing programs using tools like Omni-channel Marketing, Auto Mail.
- Customer Management: Manage and collect customer information for personalized user experiences.
- Inventory Management: Ensure a continuous supply of goods through inventory management tools and shipping direction.
- Reporting & Analysis: Exploit data and measure performance on Google Analytics, Facebook Pixels, Google Tag Manager.
Operate and maintain the ecommerce website
To maintain seamless online-to-offline business operations, the website needs continuous maintenance, care, and updates.
- System Maintenance: Control and monitor all resources on the system to optimize performance.
- Hosting: Web App system, server management, and 24/7 monitoring.
- Cloud: Enhance accessibility and data storage across the entire website system.
Grow the ecommerce website
Implement activities to increase sales operations on the website and stimulate online sales.
- Omni-channel: Set up a sales system, marketing, and data management on the ecommerce website, social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Zalo…) and e-commerce platforms (Shopee, Tiki, Lazada…).
- E-commerce Marketing: Analyze and plan comprehensive marketing based on core channels (Content Marketing, Social Marketing, Email Marketing, SEM…).
- SEO: Analyze and optimize website structure, and research specific keywords to build a long-term SEO strategy.
The journey from building a basic to an advanced ecommerce website helps businesses adapt to market changes over time.
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