How to Build an eCommerce Website from Scratch: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Own Online Store

There are many internet income streams, but few are as reliable or lucrative as building eCommerce. Demand for online purchasing will increase as the world becomes more interconnected and the digital economy prospers. eCommerce has become a massive and highly lucrative industry, with billions of dollars spent online every year. The opportunity is so great that even Amazon and eBay have begun selling their private-label brands on their sites. Building an eCommerce website might seem daunting, but with the right guidance, it doesn’t have to be as scary or complex as you think! If you’ve been thinking about starting your own eCommerce business but aren’t sure where to start or what the prerequisites are, follow this article!

What Is eCommerce?

eCommerce refers to the buying and selling of goods and services online. It is a type of electronic commerce that allows businesses and consumers to transact using the Internet. eCommerce has grown rapidly as more businesses have started selling online. And there are many benefits of eCommerce for both businesses and consumers. 

For businesses, eCommerce provides a wider market reach, as they can sell to consumers anywhere in the world. It also offers a lower cost of entry, as eCommerce businesses do not need to set up physical storefronts. And eCommerce can provide greater flexibility and scalability than brick-and-mortar businesses. 

Benefits of having an eCommerce website

In today’s digital world, more and more businesses are finding that an eCommerce website is essential to their success. By reaching a global audience and providing a convenient way for customers to purchase products and services, an eCommerce website can help businesses to achieve their sales goals. Perhaps even more importantly, an eCommerce website can give businesses a competitive edge in the marketplace.  

In addition to providing a convenient shopping experience for customers, an eCommerce website can also allow businesses to collect customer data and track customer trends. As a result, businesses with eCommerce websites are better equipped to understand their customers and provide the products and services they demand. In short, an eCommerce website is a valuable tool for any business that wants to succeed in the digital age. 

Must-Have Features of an eCommerce website

Several essential elements define a good eCommerce website. It must be simple to use first. Customers ought to have little difficulty in finding what they’re looking for. The website must be secure, second. Customers should have faith in the security of their financial and personal data. Third, a wide range of products should be available on the website. Whether it’s a specific item or just some broad inspiration, customers ought to be able to find what they’re looking for. Finally, the website ought to offer top-notch customer support. Customers should be able to access assistance promptly and simply if they have any queries or issues. These are but a handful of the crucial components of an effective eCommerce website. Having these fundamentals in place will put you on the right path.

How to Build an eCommerce Website from Scratch Step-by-Step Process

Create an eCommerce store before you can start building eCommerce online. Although there are other approaches to accomplish this, the following steps can assist you in getting started: 

• Select an appropriate eCommerce platform. There are various choices, so it’s critical to consider your selections carefully and pick the one that best meets your demands. For example, Hostinger allows you to build online store website without any requirements for coding or technical knowledge.
• Purchase a domain name. Your domain name serves as your online identity, therefore it’s critical to pick something unique and representative of your company’s image.
• Look for a developer. Unless you have experience coding, you’ll likely need to hire someone to help you set up your website. 

• Choose an eCommerce theme or template. Once again, many different themes are available, so take the time to find one that fits your style and brand identity. 
• Customize the website template/theme. Once you’ve chosen a theme, you’ll need to customize it to fit your specific needs. This includes adding your logo, changing the color scheme, and adding/removing features as needed. 
• Add your merchandise. The enjoyable part is now! You may now begin including products and customizing their settings on your eCommerce site(e.g., price, size, etc.).
• Organize a payment mechanism. You must set up a payment gateway like PayPal or Stripe in order to take payments online.
• Set your preferred shipping options. This entails setting up shipping costs and any necessary taxes or tariffs owing on delivered goods. 

Completing these steps will help you get your eCommerce store up and running smoothly!

Best templates and themes for eCommerce websites

If you are selling products online, it is important to have a well-designed website that is easy for customers to navigate. A good template or theme will help to make your website look more professional and engaging. In addition, a well-designed eCommerce website will be easy for customers to use and will help to increase sales.

Some of the best templates and themes of different platforms are mentioned below:

Shopify  

Lezada – Fully Customizable Multipurpose Shopify Theme 

If you’re looking for a fully customizable multipurpose Shopify theme, Lezada is a great option. Its classic look demo can be used to build eCommerce websites. Lezada has a number of features that can help you interact with your consumers, such as a wishlist, a comment part for discussions, a Facebook comment section, a product sharing option, and an Ajax shop cart. Install this fantastic eCommerce Shopify theme soon to help your online store idea take off. 

LeArts – Handmade Shop Shopify Theme

LeArts is the perfect Shopify theme for any handmade gift shop, furniture store, or art design studio. This theme includes multiple pre-made homepage layouts, quick view and product share options, a notification bar, a breadcrumb banner, and multiple currency support. LeArts also offers 3-, 4-, and 5-column grid view and list view options for your shop pages. With its elegant design and extensive range of features, LeArts will surely give your online store the professional edge it needs to stand out from the competition. 

Corano – Jewelry Store Shopify Theme 

Corano is an exclusive classic look Shopify theme for online jewelry stores. It provides 08 unique homepage variations including the RTL version and all must-have features. With Corano, you can take advantage of plenty of perks such as Shopify builder, theme color switcher, responsive design, SEO friendly structure, integrated Google-rich snippets, unlimited color schemes, etc. 

Together, these functions provide your website with a competitive advantage. Additionally, installing and using Corano is quite simple. Setting up your website with Corano doesn’t require you to be a tech savvy. It only takes a few clicks for anyone to complete.

Minimal Shopify Theme – Airi

Airi is a clean and minimal Shopify theme that looks great on any device. It offers a wide range of features, including 24+ home page layouts, 6+ header styles, 6+ footer styles, 50+ sections, and 15+ preloaders. It also offers newsletter popup, Ajax popup cart, quickview, multiple banner, newsletter, Facebook comment, Google Analytics, contact map and more. Airi is the perfect theme for any online store with so many features.

Sinp – Single Product Shop Shopify Theme

Sinp is an elegantly designed Shopify theme that makes it easy for you to create a stunning online store for a single product. The theme includes smartly optimized page layouts and sections, as well as a clean and modern design that will give your eCommerce site a professional look in no time. You can also customize the theme colors, add a newsletter popup, and use multiple currencies. 

The theme also includes a dropdown menu, MegaMenu, and 5+ unique sliders. Plus, the featured product section ensures that your products are prominently displayed on your website. With all these great features, Sinp is the perfect Shopify theme for any eCommerce business.

WooCommerce

WooLentor

As a WooCommerce user, you’re probably familiar with the plugin’s default page designs. While these pages are functional, they can often be limited in design and customization. That’s where WooLentor comes in. You may use the powerful WooLentor WooComemrce page builder plugin to start from scratch and design any WooCommerce page using Elementor as it comes loaded with a plethora of ready page templates for WooCommerce.

With WooLentor, you can customize your Shop and Product details pages with the free version of the plugin. The pro version also gives you access to additional customization options for the rest of the WooCommerce pages. In addition, WooLentor offers a plethora of Elementor widgets with extensive customization options that you can use to create your store exactly as you need it. So if you’re looking for more flexibility and control over your WooCommerce pages, look no further than WooLentor.

Support Genix

Support Genix provides an all-in-one solution for managing customer support tickets. With a range of built-in features, it’s easy to automate ticket management and resolve issues as they arise. Support Genix includes unlimited tickets, agents, transfer ticket capabilities, email notifications, and more. With Envato integration, it’s easy to keep track of all your support tickets in one place. Whether you’re managing a small customer support team or a large enterprise, Support Genix has the tools you need to get the job done.

Features 

• Unlimited Tickets
• Unlimited Agents
• Transfer Ticket
• Elite Licenser
• Email Notification

Pros & Cons

PROS:

• SupportGenix makes managing your support tickets simple and quick.
• It gives customers a place to submit tickets and makes it easier for you to monitor and address those tickets.

CONS:

• SupportGenix is a WordPress support ticket plugin that can only be used with WordPress. This plugin won’t be helpful to you if you don’t utilize WordPress.
• A couple of its features are exclusive to the premium version. You must upgrade to the premium version of this plugin if you want to enjoy all of its features.

Who is the tool for

It’s perfect for —

• eCommerce shops
• Digital agencies
• Digital service providers

Pricing

Free: Free to use

Premium Plans:  Support Genix have 3 pricing plans for the premium version– 

• Personal for 1 Website – $59/ Year
• Developer for 5 Websites- $99/ Year
• Agency for 100 Websites-$149/ Year

Flone – Minimal WooCommerce WordPress Theme

The website design for Flone – Minimal WooCommerce WordPress Theme is extremely fluid and imaginative. Because we research the market and foresee future trends in this sector, we produce top-notch demo websites. 

On the other hand, Flone has 7 Header Styles, 25+ Sections, and 4+ Footer Styles that will give your site new flavor daily.  The best features of your website are its responsive design, cross-browser compatibility, and multi-currency support. 

On the other hand, the Flone theme includes a fantastic product display with collection sorting, a product video, and a product review. Discuss Comment, Product Share, and Smooth Scroll will also draw your customers further into the website. Keep in mind that the more active your website visitors are, the more likely it is that they will become customers. Don’t waste this fantastic chance by having an outdated or uninteresting website.

Webflow

Farnic – Furniture Website Template

Farnic – Furniture Website Template is an exclusive and modern furniture eCommerce website template powered by the well-liked Webflow CMS. This furniture store eCommerce template will come in handy if you want to build a great and eye-catching eCommerce website using the Webflow platform as this contemporary Webflow eCommerce template comes loaded with tons of robust functionalities and features right away. 

Farnic guarantees a fast loading speed so that your website visitors do not have to wait for your pages to load. This eCommerce template is ready to be used for online stores as it is equipped with all the necessary eCommerce features. You can rest assured that your website will rank high on search engine result pages as Farnic is designed to be SEO friendly. Check out Farnic today and see how easy it is to create eCommerce website with this feature-rich Webflow template!

GreenShine – Lawn Care Website Template

The GreenShine-Lawn Care Website Template is an excellent eCommerce template that can be used for online businesses selling Garden Tools, Lawn care types of equipment, and more. This website template is fully customizable and easy to use. It includes 26 web pages in total, 14 static pages, 4 CMS collection pages, 5 eCommerce pages, and 3 utility pages. This website template offers a great way to showcase your products and services. It is also an excellent way to promote your business. Thanks to the GreenShine-Lawn Care Website Template, you will be able to create a professional-looking website that is sure to impress your customers. 

Bootstrap

Lezada – Multipurpose eCommerce HTML Template

Lezada is a modern and responsive multipurpose eCommerce HTML5 template. This new template is exceptional for its beautiful design and animation. The template is perfect for selling digital products such as fashion, clothes, cosmetics, and more. In addition, the template automatically adjusts to any kind of device or screen size. You will be able to easily customize it as your needs. 

The responsive template offers many useful features like – Bootstrap 5 along with 102 home variations, 7 shop page variations, 5 blog variations with 3 different layouts, and 1700+ icon font. It also includes Made with sass, Google font including W3C Validated Code, Clean Code, and more. With all these features, Lezada is surely a must-have template for anyone looking to create a modern and responsive eCommerce website.

Learts – Handmade Shop eCommerce HTML Template

Learts is a beautiful and modern website template that is perfect for any business in the craft or art industry. With a variety of pre-made homepages and page layouts, Learts makes it easy to create a personalized website that really shows off your work.

Additionally, features like the MailChimp integration, mega-menu, and off-canvas menu make it easy to keep your website looking great and functioning well. And with responsive design, 600+ Google Fonts, and SEO optimization, Learts is a truly top-of-the-line template. So if you’re looking for atemplate that will help you show off your work in the best possible light, Learts is the right choice for you.

Helendo – Furniture eCommerce HTML Template

If you’re looking to build a professional, modern e-commerce website, Helendo is a great option to consider. With 11 pre-built layouts and 10 beautiful shop page layouts, it’s easy to find a look that suits your interests. Even if you’re not a tech expert, you can quickly get your new site up and running. You can also present different types of products in different ways by easily modifying header and footer, typography, blog, and page layouts. Overall, Helendo is a great choice for those looking to build a stylish and functional e-commerce website.

React

Wokiee – Multipurpose React eCommerce Template

Wokiee React is one of the best eCommerce templates available on the market. It is an all-in-one React JS solution that comes with plenty of demos for different niches. This makes it the perfect choice for those who want to create an online store without having to spend hours on coding and designing. The template is also fully responsive and performs flawlessly on all devices.

In addition, it comes with a wide range of features that are essential for any online store, such as pre-built shop and blog pages, grid/masonry view, clean code, speed optimization, and well-documented files. With everything that Wokiee React has to offer, it is no wonder that it is one of the most popular eCommerce templates on ThemeForest.

Oility – React Next JS Multipurpose eCommerce Template

Oility is a top-quality multivendor eCommerce website template. It is build on React and Next JS. The use of Redux makes the template more user-friendly, while the React Hooks provide an easy way to create eCommerce websites. Additionally, there is no jQuery dependency, which makes Oility one of the most efficient website templates available today.

The six different home variations and five different shop pages make it easy to customize the look and feel of your website, while the use of top-notch features and user-friendly attributes make it a great choice for any business. Overall, Oility is a great choice for anyone looking for a top-quality eCommerce website template.

Exclusive Shopify Web Design Services (ShopiBuffet)

ShopiBuffet provides a comprehensive turnkey solution for setting up an online store in Shopify platform. The services include installing and configuring a theme, setting up products and collections, and configuring navigation. The experts are also available to answer any questions you may have about setting up or running your online store. ShopiBuffet’s turnkey solution is a great way to get started in eCommerce with minimal hassle. Plus, the company’s experts are always available to help if you need it. So if you’re looking for a complete eCommerce solution, ShopiBuffet is a great option.

Final Thoughts

 This guide taught you a lot about how to build an eCommerce website from scratch. You know the importance of choosing the right platform, designing a user-friendly interface, and adding strong Calls to Action. You also understand the value of building a comprehensive product catalog and creating high-quality content. By following the tips in this guide, you’re well on launching a successful eCommerce website. Just remember to stay focused on your goals, and you’ll be sure to succeed.