The Buyer's Guide to Affordable Ecommerce

As little as five years ago starting an ecommerce website was very similar to starting a business offline; it was time-consuming, stressful and required plenty of start-up capital. While the stressful nature of starting-up any business remains relatively unchanged, in recent years a number of affordable ecommerce solutions have made it easier for individuals to start up ecommerce website based businesses. In this article we take a look at some of these affordable shopping cat solutions, and discuss everything that you need to know about affordable electronic commerce.

Affordable E commerce Website Designs

To many budding e-retailers the design of their commerce website is the first thing that they are concerned with. Getting the look and feel of an commerce website right is important to the efficacy of the business, but purchasing an electronic commerce website design doesn't have to blow the budget.

Many professional electronic commerce website design companies offer substantial packages which include website design and website development. Although these packages do tend to offer value for money, more affordable electronic commerce website designs can be purchased separately from freelance website designers.

Affordable ecommerce website designs can also be purchased or downloaded from website template software providers. A number of specific ecommerce website design templates are widely available which are ideal for inexperienced e-retailers who cannot commit the budget to bespoke website design.

Affordable Ecommerce Website Development

Unlike many other types of business website, ecommerce websites need to be built by skilled website developers. Typically electronic commerce websites are heavy on specialist software such as shopping carts and content management systems, in addition to the complex frameworks which are used to create them. Shopping cart website development is a complex procedure, but it doesn't have to be an expensive one.

Outsourcing the shopping cart software development process to a third party organisation is a very popular way to achieve affordable commerce. Typically, the software engineering processes of ecommerce site builds which are outsourced to overseas skilled engineers and ecommerce website developers are extremely cost effective and affordable

Another affordable commerce website development solution which is closer to home is to hire freelance electronic-commerce website developers or student software engineers. Even though their body of work is not as extensive as that of a professional ecommerce website developer, student software engineers and website developers are often just as competent and capable.

What you need to know about Affordable Ecommerce

Affordable commerce is possible using cost-saving methods such as these, but its important to be aware of the potential pitfalls which can occur with affordable commerce website design and development methods:

• Drain on time-related resources
• Sub-standard quality of work
• Generic electronic commerce website design
• Website accessibility and usability errors

For professional advice and information on finding suitable affordable electronic commerce methods why not get in contact with one of our Ecommerce Website Design & Development Buyer Advisers? Our Knowledge Experts will work with you to clarify and finalize your requirements to ensure that you make a well-informed decision