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E-Commerce & Digital Agency – Informed by Research, Driven by Results

Proudly servicing South Africa, The USA and The UK

eCommerce Services we offer

eCommerce Website Design

Beautiful designs backed by data driven decision making giving you the best possible chance at success online.

eCommerce Maintenance

We maintain an manage stores on behalf of multiple clients - from product upload and maintenance to website maintenance.

eCommerce Research

We do full spectrum eCommerce research, on site and off site. This includes user panel research as well as user experience research.

eCommerce Marketing

Including SEO, Social Media Marketing, Paid advertising, influencer marketing and creative services like video and image content creation and design.

ecommerce website design

An eCommerce website enables a regular website to trade online, making products accessible to many more people than the business would have had access to, if they were only in a brick and mortar store. 

An eCommerce website is a website on the world wide web, that allows customers to purchase products that a business sells. In enables sales on a desktop, mobile or tablet device, and can even be set up as a mobile app.

It used a payment gateway to enable transactions, and a ecommerce platform like WooCommerce or Shopify to enable selling.

An eCommerce website is most generally done by an eCommerce website designer, but can also be created by anyone with the knowledge of how to. 

It is generally advised to make use of professional web designers to set up your site to ensure you can start selling immediately, and effectively.

eCommerce websites are more expensive than regular websites, as there is more functionality to develop and put in place.

A good eCommerce website can start at R6000 for a very basic website, and also price over R100 000, depending on the business need, functionality required, or hours needed to create the vision the client has.

If you want to know the difference between WooCommerce and Shopify pricing, have a look here.

Before settling on a price, be sure that you know what all the functionalities are that you require your website to be able to do. If you are not sure, do proper research, as a low price usually equals little to basic functionality that does not allow your business to grow online.

it could take 3 days, it could take 6 months. The variables needed to understand how long it takes to design an eCommerce website include:

  1. The functionality you need
  2. Your budget
  3. The platform you are using
  4. Business goals
  5. Readiness and availability of assets and elements

This is a much debated topic, with no right answer, and only subjective opinions.

There are so many eCommerce website builders: WooCommerce, Shopify, Ecwid, Wix, SquareSpace, Weebly and many more.

Each of them exist because they offer different use cases. Which one you choose depends on what you want to use it for, how you want to use it, and your available budget.

For us it always comes down to either using Shopify or WooCommerce. Most of our clients opt for WooCommerce, as it is more affordable, has better functionality accessibility and can scale and grow with our clients. Here is a comparative study on the costs between WooCommerce and Shopify.

Shopify – use when you are doing it yourself, and have budget to spend monthly on a platform. Use if you do not mind paying for every extension and added functionality.

WooCommerce – use if you are a little bit more technical, and can find your way around basic editors similar to Word and PowerPoint, also if you do not want to spend money on the platform (just to access it) monthly. Also use if you are looking to add functionality to your site from thousands of free plugins.

Ecwid – use if you have monthly budget to spend. Using the free plan limits your ability to add automations, newsletters or social accessibility your site, minimizing the experience for your customers.

Weebly/SquareSpace/Wix – use if you do not care about the platform, and just want a quick and easy solution. Please note that you will be limited to upgrading, and functionality addition, unless you want to pay for each extension or development through a developer. Most people who have come to use from Wix requested a complete store overhaul in the long term, as their SEO and customer experience did not live up to expectation, and their stores could not grow with them.

This is a vape eCommerce shop: www.clickvape.co.uk in the UK. 

This is a local eCommerce jewellery store: https://bigdogsteel.co.za/ 

This is an online marketplace: https://www.takealot.com/ 

Yes. An app can also start as a website (called a web app).

These are the basic steps:

  1. Decide what you want to sell
  2. Get a URL
  3. Get hosting
  4. Setup your website and eCommerce functionality
  5. Do marketing
  6. Sell your products

That is the very much simplified process, there is a lot more that goes into it though. It’s also because people think it is easy, and this simple, that many eCommerce stores are failing. 

eCommerce website design is website design and development specifically to develop a website that can sell online, that is set up to target the ideal customers for that specific business, and that can optimised for user experience and the selling and customer service journey.

This is also a subjective question. An experienced and good website designer charges anything from R550 per hour and upwards.

Most website designers and developers cost project hourly. It is worth it to ask your designers how many hours are dedicated to the setup of your website. This will help you understand their hourly rate, and their level of skill and technical ability.

Some eCommerce website designers to charge a full project fee. A project fee usually comprises an estimate of hours needed to build a website according to the customer’s exact specifications.

You can either do it yourself, or get a web designer to do it. Want more info? Contact us now.

Frequently Asked Question about ECommerce Website Design

7 Reasons why you need an eCommerce website:

  1. Your website is the silent salesman representing your company, when you are not there, assisting people when they want to buy your products
  2. Customers are migrating online, and expect your products to be easily and readily accessible online
  3. Making your products more accessible, gives you access to more customers
  4. It means your business is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
  5. More cost effective – going online takes the strain away from having to pay for a brick and mortar store, saving space, and monthly budget
  6. Make more money – not only are your overheads reduced, but you are more accessible to customers geographically, and at any time of the day, which means they can shop whenever they want to!
  7. It is more convenient – both for you and your customers

Serious about getting an eCommerce website?

SOUTH AFRICA ECOMMERCE STATISTICS - DID YOU KNOW?

stats by we are social Digital 2021 Global Overview Report. Based on South African internet users aged 16 to 64.

0 %
bought something online via any device in the past month
0 %
bought something online via any mobile device in the past month
0 %
bought something online via a computer in the past month
0 %
of adults age 15+ that possess a credit card
0 %
use mobile payments
0 %
use online services to order take away food for delivery

Are you missing out on these customers?

START TODAY

01

ID YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER

Not sure who your ideal customer is? We help you define your customer, and set up strategies to push them to your online store.

02

READY TO SHOP

Your ideal customers are ready to shop, they just don't know about you. Do you know how to make them aware of you? We help you set up a strategy to grab the attention of your ideal customer, peak their interest and drive them to action.

03

HOW DO WE DO IT?

Everything we do is underpinned by research, that is translated into strategies that can be rolled out by yourself or us. It all starts with the right questions, they questions you have right now.

UNIQUE DESIGN

Your design should be unique to your brand and business.

CUSTOMIZABLE + SCALABLE

Ensure you can customise and scale your website

EASILY ACCESSIBLE

Can be accessed easily from any platform

MOBILE FIRST DESIGN

Designed with the mobile experience in mind first

NO COMPROMISE POINTS OF ECOMEMRCE WEB DESIGN

Never compromise on these 4 things when it comes to web design

Serious about getting an eCommerce website?

Want to get in touch with us to find out more about eCommerce, or how we can help you set up and manage your ecommerce business? Complete the form, or contact us on the details below.

ecommerce website internationally, and also specialized for ecommerce website design in South Africa, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria

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