The global e-commerce growth rate in 2021 was 16.8%, making it an industry worth $4.921 billion. With the industry being so large, the competition has continued to get tougher in all niches. One of the best ways to stand out in the crowded marketplace is your ecommerce website.

Your website is the first thing that customers see and can make a big impact on whether your business is successful. If you don’t have a design background, getting the ideal website for your business requires a website developer.

While it would be excellent for a website developer to know your vision for your website, it isn’t realistic. It would help if you learned how to work with a website developer to create the website that will be best for your business. Fortunately, there are a few things that every business owner can do when working with a developer.

This article will cover how you can work with a website developer to get the best website for your business.

Identify Your Ecommerce Website Requirements

Before you start hiring a developer, you need to identify your needs for the website. Some businesses prefer having advanced features, such as automated upsells or pop-ups on their website. Other businesses are happy with a standard template the showcases their products.

Write down all of the features you would like to have on your website, giving you an easy way to communicate with the developer. If you have seen an example of a feature you would like on your website, save the link to show the developer. 

Determine Your Website’s Budget

While we would all love to have dozens of custom features on our websites, it comes with a price. Most website developers work by the hour, with the average cost ranging from $30 to $60 per hour. If you decide to work with a web design agency, the cost will be higher. 

For those with a limited budget, you will need to make some compromises. You will have to limit the features on your website to those most important to you. Some basic website features that matter most are: 

• Easy Navigation
• Modern Design
• Attractive Product Pages
• Mobile-Friendly Layout

Once you have the most critical parts of your website complete, you can discuss with your developer about adding other features. Your budget will also determine the way the developer builds the website. A full-stack website developer will create your website from scratch. 

If you don’t have a budget for many working hours, the developer will use a generic outline for the site. You can still receive excellent results with an outline, but there will be a limited amount of custom features that you can add. 

Most e-commerce websites developed by an experienced professional will range from $10,000 to $250,000. It would be best if you also considered the reoccurring expenses of a Shopify store, like hosting and the updates from the website developer. 

Interview Website Developers

Now that you’ve decided on what type of features you want for your website and budget—it’s time to interview developers. This part of the process should be used to ask questions and ensure that the website developer is on the same page. 

When a website developer understands your vision from the beginning, the process will go much more smoothly. In most cases, you will be using an online marketplace like Upwork or Freelancer to find a website developer for your project. 

Writing a detailed job description that describes the project’s scope will attract the developer you need for the job. You can also narrow your search for candidates by requiring them to have a certain level of experience and a portfolio. 

Once you have narrowed down your candidates, you should ask them some crucial questions. Some of the best questions to ask a developer experienced in eCommerce websites are about their past website projects and their technical credentials as an e-commerce website developer. 

Request a Draft of the Design Before Development

Before letting the website developer start writing the code, you should perfect the website’s design. Numerous design tools like Figma allow you to create mockups of a website with perfect dimensions. You can work with your developer to perfect the design.  

Once you and your website developer have found the design for your website, they can develop the website. Developing an e-commerce website can take some time, as these websites have more pages than a standard design. 

While the e-commerce website developer is creating the site, you can focus on other aspects of the site, such as content creation. Hire copywriters to create product descriptions, graphic designers to create your branding, or content writers for the blog. 

Complete Development of Website

If you have explained what you want in great detail, the website should look similar to what you want. However, there are chances the website isn’t perfect yet and needs adjustments. You and the developer should set ground rules on how many revisions are included in the project. 

In most cases, two revisions to your website are enough to get your desired result. Once it’s complete, your website’s basic structure should be created, and you are ready to customize it. If the website is developed from scratch, the interface can be difficult to edit on your own. 

Ask your website developer to record tutorials on making changes to the website. You will need to change the text, add new products, and update your blog. If you have the budget for it, you can also keep in contact with the developer to make continuous updates. 

Learn More About Creating a Professional Ecommerce Website Today

Having a professional-looking ecommerce website is necessary in today’s business world. By hiring a website developer, you can ensure that your website competes with even the top businesses in your industry. To learn more about website development, check out our other posts at CodeCondo. 

Also Read: How to Project Manage Your Ecommerce Business?