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Ecommerce website development has evolved rapidly over the past decade, from being pretty much a brick and mortar business operation, to online only operations. The most important reason for this evolution was the explosion of tablet computers and other mobile devices in the marketplace. Today, consumers spend twice as much time on their cell phones versus their desktop computer. This means that mobile users spend twice as much time on their mobile devices browsing the web. Therefore, it makes sense that if you want to tap into this market you need to start designing your website in a way that will attract these users.
Yes, the ideal time to take an eCommerce website live was a decade ago when there were millions of internet users but today the second-best time to take it live is right now. With nearly 20 million e-commerce sites in operation today and 2.4 billion people anticipated to make online purchases in 21002 you really should chart a course and set up your website to go live. There are two primary reasons for doing this. Number one is the fact that the majority of this site's buyers are already in love with shopping online. They have already established an affinity for shopping through mobile apps or through social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Number two, it allows us to leverage the tremendous power of social media. Millions of people are logging on to their social pages each day and enjoying the fruits of their online investment by buying products and services. This type of social media presence creates a captive audience of buyers ready to buy from you when you set up your ecommerce website development and shopping cart system. This is a primary reason why many smart website design companies now offer integrated social media and ecommerce solutions. They do this through the integration of the company website with social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Stumble Upon, and many others.
In addition to having a captive audience of buyers ready to buy, Ecommerce website development also provides you with a ready supply of potential buyers waiting to purchase. Most ecommerce websites are fully integrated with drop shippers and wholesalers who will sell you the products and ship them to your customer directly from their warehouses. You are effectively eliminating the need for you to stock inventory. You will no longer need to rent expensive warehouse space to store your products. Your customer will order their products right from their computer at home and you will deliver it right to their door.
Social media is playing a similar role in helping you build a strong online presence and acquiring a captive audience of buyers. The advent of social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn has made it easy to connect with your audience and communicate with them on a more personal level. By taking advantage of the power of these sites to generate traffic and build relationships with your target audience, you are setting yourself up for an ecommerce business that can grow and flourish. When you have developed the right ecommerce website development platform, you can also tap into this same resource by adding the social media icons to your website.
If you already have an existing business or network of customers, you can leverage the power of ecommerce website development to build a stronger and bigger presence online. By developing an ecommerce website development system that uses a social media interface, you will be able to not only make the sales but also share information about your business with your customers. If you have a blog or a website that you update regularly with news and insights about your products and services, you can use that site to extend your current customer base while tapping into the ever-growing list of people who like to read up on their favorite things.
Ecommerce platforms vary in price. You can purchase a low cost, pre-built ecommerce platform from a service provider, or you can develop your own customized solution by hiring a professional development company. Although there are many ecommerce platforms available, many of the top-rated and highly-functional ecommerce platforms available today are open source. By taking advantage of the open-source community of software developers and designers who are building ecommerce stores, you can spend less time and money on the development costs and more time and money on making your online stores more functional and useful for your visitors.
Once you have your ecommerce shopping cart up and running, you will need a website to support it. There are several website building options available, including affordable and free hosting platforms, as well as more robust and expensive options that offer more website building capabilities. Many people choose to outsource the creation of their website in order to save time and money. While this might seem like the more expensive option, outsourcing the creation of your website is an excellent way to ensure that all of the elements of your website are functional - and that includes building an effective and useful product description so that your customers know what to expect when they visit your website.
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