In this digital world, it is indispensable for a business to have an online presence, especially if they are thinking of going into getting the network designed for themselves by getting in contact with an eCommerce Design Company in India. Now, a great number of business owners get confused when building an eCommerce website, as both web development with and without design are often misconstrued. While they are two sides of the same coin, they have different roles in the creation process that will affect whether your online store is a success.
In this blog, we detail the differences between eCommerce web development and e-commerce web design, as well as what each does separately to help make an e-commerce site successful from a UX perspective.
What Makes an eCommerce Web Design?
Design: Design consists of web design and user interface design. This is made up of your layout, colors, typography, imagery and the general user interface (UI). Web design is all about an interactive and captivating experience that keeps the customers engaged and interacting with you.
ECommerce Web Design Practices: Key Points
- UI (User Interface): It is the visual look part, the buttons, images, sliders and text placement in which a user interacts.
- User Experience (UX): This area is all about improving how the user journeys through your website, providing a fluid experience with increased conversions.
- Responsive Design: Makes certain that the website appears and functions smoothly on all devices, like desktops, mobiles or tablets. Something that is paramount in this day and age of mobile commerce.
- Branding & aesthetics: The design of an eCommerce website will make the site unique to one company and different from its competitors; something as simple as a colour scheme for headers or logos can help reinforce this.
- Calls-to-Action (CTA): Actions a design can push users to take, such as clicking on buttons or banners in order to make the desired move, be it buying something completing a purchase subscribing to newsletters, etc.
What do eCommerce designers do?
Although eCommerce web designers create visually rich and user-friendly websites. They determine color schemes, typography, and how products are to be displayed with an aim at providing a smooth shopping experience. They make sure to test it on every device, so the site looks well and is appealing overall, which enhances customer satisfaction.
Diving into eCommerce Web Development
Web development is the coding or programming that enables a website to function and operate. Developers bring the visual design made by designers to life into a website.
Front-End Development:
This essentially covers the client side of a website or where users interact with it. To do this, developers program a responsive user interface that integrates the design with the function of your product using languages such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
Back-End Development:
The back end is the ' server side' of your website and handles servers and database applications. This is the engine room of your online store, where all of the back-end work happens behind the scenes, such as pulling product details from a database server, processing behind-the-scenes, and handling payments. Languages such as PHP, Python or Ruby can be used to accomplish this with databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB.
eCommerce Development Features:
- Combinator participant allows shopping cart integration: Users can add items to a cart, view it, and check out easily.
- Payment Process: Building a safe payment process that processes transactions, providing options for users to pay with credit cards, PayPal or any other means.
- Inventory Management: Systems in the background to monitor and update stock levels as and when goods get added or shelved.
- Security: You can add an SSL certification, encryption, etc. to secure your customer's data and transactions.
- No need Automation: Integrating third-party tools like Google Analytics, customer support, CRM, and Marketing APIs
Key Differences Between eCommerce Web Development and Web Design
Web development and web design both have crucial roles in the creation process of an eCommerce site, but they are addressing different data when building a site:
a) Focus and Approach: Web Design: Focuses on aesthetics and user interface, tech websites fascinated me. Designers are mainly concerned about what a site looks like and how users will feel as they navigate the website.
Web Development: Functionality and Performance. These are the people who have worked on developing whatever is going to power and drive your site so that it functions properly.
b) Tools and Technologies: Web Design: This technology used tools like Adobe XD, Figma, Sketch and Canva to design wireframes and prototypes of websites.
Web Development: The programming languages used are HTML, CCS and JavaScript for the front-end, as well as PHP, Python or Ruby on the back-end. Developers even try using frameworks like React, Angular and Laravel to implement their "ideas.".
c) Creative vs. Technical: Web Design: Requires a good amount of creativity and understanding about human psychology, what attracts its with vision to experiment in website how they feel the journey from one place page/section.
Web Development: Solving and implementing solutions through coding to have a functioning, secure, fast website.
d) Workflow: Web design (usually the first thing on our mind): Designers Develop the blueprint, and developers create the site from that design.
Web Development: Takes place after design, where developers take high-fidelity sketches and recreate a functional website.
Which Should You Focus On? Design or development?
Both eCommerce web design and development are crucial for success, but which one should take priority?
Scenario 1: If You’re Just Starting Out
For businesses in the planning stages, web design may take precedence. You want to establish a visual identity and a website that communicates your brand effectively. However, as your business grows, you will need a well-structured, scalable website, which means focusing on solid web development.
Scenario 2: If You Have a Website, But It’s Underperforming
If you already have an eCommerce site but experience slow load times, cart abandonment, or security issues, focusing on web development might be the best move. Optimizing site performance, enhancing security, and adding new functionalities like payment gateways or APIs can significantly improve the overall user experience and boost sales.
Scenario 3: Scaling Your Business
As your business grows, both design and development need to evolve. Upgrading your website's appearance to cater to new audiences while ensuring that the back end can handle increased traffic and transactions is vital.
Conclusion: Achieving the Perfect Balance
You cannot give more priority to web design or development over the other and expect your eCommerce website to work flawlessly. But both of them have an equal part in making your website look good and easy to use, just as performance. An expert web designer can syphon gallons of users to your site; however, minus strong web development as the foundation in place, it will never get traction or function well enough as a commercial website that adapts suitably for scaling.
Instead, you should recruit an entire team for your eCommerce project, including professionals in both fields. They help to ensure that your website is not only visually appealing but also runs well, resulting in a positive user experience for your customers.
Also Read: The 6 Best Ecommerce Website Builders in 2024
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