The ubiquitous rise in online shopping has led to phenomenal growth in the demand for e-commerce app development services over the past few years. The mushrooming up of new e-commerce stores along with the spike in demand for eCommerce software development has been incessant without any visible signs of slowing down. As per estimates, by 2021, e-commerce will generate $4.5 trillion in revenue every year. Nasdaq has estimated that by 2040, around 95% of purchases will be through e-commerce.
With numerous e-commerce platforms offering near similar products and services, customer experience (CX) is fast turning into the next battleground for online stores. Today’s discerning customer demands a frictionless experience right from finding the right products to ease payments and delivery. In the highly competitive e-commerce marketplace, you don’t need just an online store but an experiential platform powered by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), which only a highly experienced eCommerce app development company can deliver.
But how do you choose a reliable e-commerce portal development services provider who can help you build a highly performant e-commerce website both in terms of aesthetics and functionality? One often encounters a barrage of questions such as how many projects the vendor has successfully delivered, the services offered, relevant experience, and the technology stack. Here are a few considerations that you must make while choosing the best eCommerce website development company.
Choose a Specialist eCommerce Development Company
It is challenging to choose from among the numerous e-commerce portal development companies often offering their services at meager prices. However, you should avoid falling into this trap, as small-time software developers offering their services at unbelievably low prices lack an established software development company’s reliability.
The best option is to choose a specialist e-commerce development company with relevant domain experience and an extensive portfolio of successfully delivered projects. Only a highly-experienced custom e-commerce website development company can provide you with a feature-rich e-commerce platform ranging from an impressive products gallery to multiple shopping carts, payment options, etc.
Scalability is another prerequisite to a high-performant e-commerce portal as if you plan to build a multi-vendor e-commerce marketplace; your product offerings could exceed thousands of products. Choose a developer who can deliver you a highly-responsive e-commerce platform with fast loading pages and the capability to handle a large influx of user traffic.
Suppose your business model caters to a global audience and requires multilingual and multicurrency features. In that case, your obvious choice should be a mid-sized or large-sized specialist e-commerce solutions provider. Furthermore, specialist e-commerce development services providers leverage proven agile methodologies and a technology-agnostic approach to build custom e-commerce solutions, which small-time software vendors are incapable of matching.
Time-to-Market Is Critical in eCommerce Software Development
As COVID-19 continues to reshape the world as we know it, time-to-market has become critical for e-commerce businesses more than ever. According to IBM’s US Retail Index, the trend of people shifting from traditional shopping to e-commerce got accelerated by approximately five years in 2020, with e-commerce forecasted to register a growth of over 20% in a year.
Retail and e-commerce players need to speed up their time-to-market to stay relevant in a “contactless” environment. Retail behemoth Walmart is one such example. Walmart sustained itself in the new reality by making early investments in e-commerce. The pandemic drove Walmart’s sales up by 97%.
If you are an e-commerce business trying to bring a new business model from the whiteboard into the market, time-to-market can be business-critical. A competitor could replicate your business model, denying you the first-mover advantage.
A professionally-run e-commerce development company can help you achieve faster time-to-market by providing a minimum viable product (MVP) within the assigned time frame with reliable quality. A dedicated e-commerce website development team can scale as per need to ensure a bug-free e-commerce website’s timely delivery. Project extensions also lead to a rise in development cost.
Check Reviews and Testimonials of Your eCommerce Development Company
The first step towards selecting a vendor for your e-commerce development project is to check the company’s reviews online. Company reviews and client testimonials are significant indicators of an e-commerce development company’s ability to deliver projects quickly. Testimonials posted by clients on research and review sites such as GoodFirms and Clutch validate a software company’s trustworthiness. Reading reviews also helps gain insights into an e-commerce development company’s past work and the brands they helped digitally transform.
Will Your eCommerce App Development Company Provide Post-Go-Live Support?
Your e-commerce development partner firm should be reliable enough to provide complete maintenance and support services post-go-live. A host of services are required to have an e-commerce store up and running after a go-live, from server management to digital marketing. It helps if you hire a one-stop-shop e-commerce development company to meet all your needs under one roof. Handling multiple vendors and touchpoints will hamper your ability to focus on business-critical tasks such as maximizing ROI of your e-commerce business. Look for a firm that can cater to your current and the anticipated requirements of the future.
Conclusion: It Always Pays to Hire a Reliable eCommerce Development Company
It always pays to choose a reliable mid-sized or large-sized e-commerce website development company over a small-time software vendor in the long-run.
