Not all business owners have enough budget for their website development.
Especially, for startups and small businesses, it can be very difficult to spend a huge amount of money just to create a website.
Instead, they want to spend more money on marketing and other activities that directly help them grow their businesses.
I understand this.
But we mustn’t forget that a website is as important as any other business development activity.
Therefore, the quality of the website shouldn’t be compromised for the sake of low development cost.
That’s why I am always ready to help my clients get an affordable yet profitable website for their businesses.
In this blog post, I have shared my first-hand experience with one of the clients who wanted to create a cosmetic e-commerce website but at a low cost.
I, along with my team helped her to build a profitable yet affordable e-commerce website.
You may be wondering how!
Let me take you through each step of her website development process.
Are you ready! Let’s dive in.
#1 Defined the purpose
During my first conversation with the client, I asked her about her goals & objectives to create an e-commerce store to sell her cosmetic products.
She told me that she wanted to sell her products in Singapore as well as other neighbouring countries such as Malaysia.
She also told me that there could be around 50 products to be uploaded to the website gradually. So, I had to take care of the scalability & flexibility of the website.
#2 Defined the budget
My next question to her was “What’s your e-commerce website budget?” to which she replied that she has been receiving a couple of website development proposals.
And the average cost that she had been quoted for her website development was $8000.
However, she wanted to build her e-commerce website for as low as 50% of the quoted price because her web design budget was low.
#3 Suggested WordPress
Based on the website design requirements & budget of my client, I recommended her to go with WordPress.
She wasn’t sure about using WordPress, so I explained to her some of the major benefits of using WordPress for an e-commerce website development, which are:
- WordPress themes can be purchased for as low as $75
- Most of the WordPress plugins are free to use.
- The cost to purchase a premium WordPress plugin is not too high either.
- WordPress is SEO-friendly.
- Most of the basic features that she was looking out for were already included in the core WooCommerce version.
- WordPress can be made secured by following few best security practices which I was willing to do for her.
After knowing about the benefits of WordPress, she wasn’t hesitant at all to use it for her website development.
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#4 Assistance to choose web hosting
After finalizing the CMS (WordPress), the next step was to secure a domain name & web hosting.
For the domain name, I suggested to her one of the reliable domain registration companies in Singapore to purchase the domain name for her website.
And since we are a reseller of a few hosting companies in Singapore & the US, and can offer good discounts on the annual hosting packages, she asked me to arrange for the hosting.
Recommended post: 7 Tips to choose a web hosting company for your website
#5 started the web design process
The first step of website development is to create a layout for the website.
We proposed 2 different website mockups to the client and she sent us feedback for one of them.
After making the required iterations, I sent back the layout design to her again.
This time, there were only a few minor iterations which we did, and got the layout approved finally!
#6 Initiated website development
Based on the approved website design, we then started working on the website development for which we followed the below steps:
- Setup of WordPress installation on our server.
- Purchasing & installing the WordPress theme to the website.
- Making required customizations on the theme to match the proposed design.
#7 Installation of plugins
After the basic installation of the WordPress website, we started installing all the necessary plugins to the site according to the requirements of my client.
I had to take care of the budget of my client, so I chose only those plugins that were great, effective yet free, or nominally charged.
Here is the list of plugins that I decided to choose for her website:
- WooCommerce (for the e-commerce features)
- Yoast SEO (for search engine optimization)
- Live Chat (to integrate live chat option)
- WooCommerce Product Slider (to make beautiful product sliders)
- WP Mail SMTP by WPForms (to facilitate emails)
- All in One WP Security (to protect the website)
- W3 Cache (to optimize the loading time)
- First Order Discount WooCommerce (for providing discounts to all the new customers)
Recommended post: Grow your e-commerce sales with these WordPress plugins
#8 Content upload
After the completion of website development, our team then started working on the content upload for our client.
We assisted our client to upload the information & images for the pages like about us, FAQ, contact us, etc.
We also helped our client to upload the products on her website.
#9 Testing & Feedback
The next step that comes after completing the website development and content uploading is to test the website for any possible error(s).
We also invited our client to check the webpages on our test server and provide us the necessary feedback which she did.
After making the required changes to the webpages, we finally showed the website to our client for her go-ahead to make the website live.
#10 The final step: launch
After completing the testing & feedback process, it was time to make the website live.
We assisted our client to upload her website to her own server.
So finally, her e-commerce store was live and available for the public to buy the products.
#11 Handover
Our job didn’t end after making the website live.
We did handover all the necessary information such as:
- cPanel details (since we arranged the web hosting for her)
- WordPress admin credentials
- All other necessary credentials
Also, we provided free support of 3 months to our client. So for any minor update or bug fixing, we didn’t charge any money from her.
Recommended post: 6 Responsibilities of a WordPress developer that you must know
Conclusion:
Our client is now running her e-commerce business successfully. Do you see how we helped our client to set up an e-commerce website efficiently & cost-effectively?
We can help you too for developing a profitable yet affordable e-commerce website for your business.
Here are some FAQs by our client:
Your WordPress (WooCommerce) website can easily accommodate hundreds of products. There will be no issues even if you have a couple of thousands of products.
WooCommerce is a robust plugin that can help you to build a profitable website cost-effectively.
Yes, if you don’t want to continue with us in the future & want to hire another developer, you can do that.
We will use WordPress for your e-commerce website development. So you can hire a WordPress developer to take care of your website.
No, there will be no limit on iterations on the website mockup. We will keep making changes as per your feedback until you are 100% satisfied.
Yes, we do provide free 3-months support to our clients after their websites are launched. During these 3 months, we help our clients to fix any kind of development bug or error on their websites.
Yes, we send our clients mockups to feedback or choose from.
