The Main stages of an online shop development: part 1

An online shop gives tons of advantages, including an increase in income, goods catalog management and marketing activities automation. Ordering an online shop is a huge step for every business. For that reason, every web agency client should be aware of the main stages of an online shop development.

1st step: market analysis and technical specification

Analysis of the market is the first move toward online shop development because at this stage you can analyze your competitors. You can also find out about their mistakes and weaknesses in order to avoid them in your business. If you are a real specialist in your business field, you will see a necessary solution without delay.

In online shop development, apart from technical requirements, users’ experience is also important. Dinarys team pays special attention to website visual and functional aspects in terms of requirements specification. The team of developers and designers is striving to make a high-quality product that satisfies all the customer’s business goals. While compiling technical specifications, both the team and the customer give instructions to designers, HTML Authors and engineers, who will work on a project.

Points that should be clarified in the technical specification:

• Website structure with informational blocks and parts of the site;
• CMS or a website framework;
• The functional part of an online shop, including user cart, user account, ways of payment, feedback form;
• Integration with other systems, including social networks, CRM, web analytics and newsletters services;
• Additional functions of an online shop: chatbots or an Online Assistant;
• Marketing plug-ins: promo codes, special offers, discount systems, subscription for updates and newsletters.  

If you have doubts about choosing CMS for your online store, the articles about free and paid CMS will help you to choose the best option for your business.

This stage of online shop development requires a project manager, a business analyst, a UX designer and a developer. 

2nd stage: design and visual solutions

When the customer and the web agency team have agreed on technical specification, it is time for creating the site's appearance. The main goal at this stage is to make a convenient and user-friendly website with a corporate style using up-to-date trends in web design. The final product should be not only colorful but also convenient.

Dinarys team creates a layout of the most important pages, including catalog, the main page, user cart and information sections. When the website design is agreed with the customer, all the layouts go to frontend development department.

The duration of this stage mostly depends on the customer that should be involved in the whole process in order to find the balance between the customer and designer’s vision.

At this stage, the customer communicates with project manager and web designer.

In the new article, we will cover further stages of website development. To be continued…