Many businesses around the world, big and small, are still just beginning to set foot into the great, big world of the internet. This means that daily, new websites are created to promote the sale of products and services that may or may not benefit your life. Ecommerce has grown to become a major contribution to overall sales for many companies. This is because it has created a convenient and effortless way to purchase and book products and services.

Advantages of Ecommerce:

• It provides you with a store that is open all hours of the day, and all days of the year.
• It provides you with a website that is able to reach global markets. Without their help you would be stuck providing your products and services in the immediate area of which you operate, but now it is even possible for people all around the world to search for your business and make additional sales.
• Sell a wide range of stock items. You are not always able to keep all products on hand, and sometimes your store can run out of popular items. Ecommerce prevents that from happening.
• Upselling additional items is easy. When a customer views one item, there are various other items in view that may interest the customer as well, increasing the sale and the customer value.
• Easier cross-selling items. This is similar to having items at the register in grocery stores. When a customer checks out on your online store, you can present them with additional offers that go well with their purchase or any other special offer that they might have missed out on.
• Ecommerce allows you to track customer behavior. If a customer is particularly interested in your brand's colored gloves, then the website can offer those similar items or items that would go great with what they have been known to shop for.
• Marketing through email. Many websites ask for customer emails to keep on file to send them an invoice of the sale, but this is also an opportunity to inform them of sales and special promotions. This creates traffic back into your website for the main purpose of generating new sales.
• Provides you with market data on your clients. By gathering statistics on your clients you are able to gain new found knowledge on likes and dislikes, maybe which items are selling well and which aren't.

Ecommerce Development from Scratch

When making a purchase online, whether it is a brand new pair of Nike's or an autographed copy of The Walking Dead Volume 1, a lot of work goes into making that purchase possible. There are a hundred and one ways to develop a website but first you need a domain name.

Now, you must find a web host to storeyour website's files. This step can be compared to finding the building in which you want to start your company. This step can sometimes be troublesome because this requires, in most cases, a monthly fee to support your domain which in turn grants you access to a certain amount of space and add-ons depending on how much you pay.

Once that is done and over with, the final step is creating a layout. Most people get the help from web designers.

Now that your website is up and going you can begin selling, right?Not quite yet. You still need to set up payment plans, delivery options, fees, customer assistance, languages and most importantly, the product.

Outsourcing Your Ecommerce Development

This process seems very long, tiring and tedious; many would agree with that sentiment, but there is another option. That is where ecommerce development companies come into play. These are businesses there to help you make the process of creating your own website a much simpler task. They take out steps two and three, which were previously stated, and make it into an easy process that saves you both time and more importantly, money.

There are many advantages to having an online store where customers can view your products and services every day of the year, but the advantages of using an ecommerce developer are even greater.

Building a Website Using an Ecommerce Solution like WooCommerce

One of the many ecommerce companies out there is WooCommerce. They take a simple idea and make it grand and presentable to the millions who will visit your webpage each and every day. Their process is quick and easy. They provide you with an extension which is easily downloaded right on their website. WooCommerce uses the hosting site WordPress, a free blogging website, and edits the page layout to create a regular commercial website to conduct sales.

WooCommerce providesthe user with an interface with which they can choose from various templates and styles that suits their company's needs. From here the user is able to add photos and descriptions and pages of their various products and services. Once the basic layout is set up, WooCommerce provides users with additional add-ons (some for an additional fee) that can be used to further improve the website. The add-ons range from delivery options to adding multi-lingual tools to support customers across the world.

On top of all the website services that WooCommerce provides, they also provide many practical solutions that can benefit your business in the real world as well. By using their program the business owner is able to keep track of sales, customer reviews, and inventory. All of this data can be collected in reports provided by WooCommerce in a professional manner so owners can further provide better services to their customer.

Advantages of WooCommerce:

• It's free.
• It is a very flexible web tool, easy for those new to the internet to use. It quickly allows business owners to categorize products, give them attributes. Owners can sell virtual or downloadable products.
• It is all based around WordPress. For many that are familiar with WordPress, the benefit of recognizing how the site works this will save lots of time.
• There are many customization options that enable the user to create a unique style for their webpage. WooCommerce provides 39 different themes to start with, and each one is fully customizable.
• A very professional interface that is easy to use. Complimentary with the initial installation, there are many customer engagement tools, as well as tax settings, inventory management, and shipping options.
• Hundreds of additional extensions. The many extensions that are created by WooCommerce and users can be downloaded (some for a fee) to make the sales experience much better.
• An easy view of data. The analytics system that comes with WooCommerce creates figures and graphs of sales, averages, and customer statistics.
• WooCommerce uses a secure network. It is constantly being updated to keep up with web browser updates as well as WordPress updates to prevent users from experiencing bugs.

A Look at another Option - Magento

Another major force in ecommerce development is Magento. They are a widely-used company that offers many of the same services that WooCommerce does, including free templates and add-ons. One of the major differences between the two is that where WooCommerce uses WordPress to host the websites, Magento essentially uses EBay. In regards to simplicity, Magento can be a little more difficult for some users. This is especially true when downloading extensions; however, Magento provides users with various tutorial videos as well as an installation wizard to ease you into the complications of designing a web page.

Advantages of Magento:

• Offers versatile content management which allows business owners to easily customize the website.
• Has a powerful spacious interface that can support up to 500,000 products on one site as well as 80,000 orders per hour.
• Contains a built in upsell and cross-sell system.
• A mobile-friendly web page that allows customers to access any website on their server with ease.
• Features on Magento websites include easy navigation, wish lists, favorites, product comparisons and many more. These features allow for a better customer experience upon visiting the website.
• Magento has teamed up with Google so users of Magento are also able to take advantage of many Google tools such as Google Analytics and Google Checkout.
• Third-party integrations have become much simpler. With just the click of a button services such as PayPal, Ebay, and Google Shopping can be facilitated easily onto the webpage.
• A worldwide provider. By using Magento services factors such as language and currency are no longer a problem, and business owners are able to service customers all around the globe.

Many people and businesses trust ecommerce developers for the main fact that they know how to get the job done, and they can do it well. Thousands of big name companies such as Harley Davidson, New Balance, Nike, and Rosetta Stone use ecommerce developers such as WooCommerce and Magento to manage their websites.

The benefits of ecommercesolutions are easily seen when you take into consideration how many businesses use this sales strategy to increase their profits and customer satisfaction. It provides a simple and efficient way to get in touch with customers at home and generate revenueat a low cost.