13 Easy Steps Before Starting Ecommerce Website Development Process

Note: This blog post is an updated and refreshed version of our original article published in 2020. We have added the latest trends and strategies for 2025 to ensure it remains relevant and actionable for today’s e-commerce landscape.

According to a Nasdaq report, it is estimated that 95% of the purchases will be through ecommerce stores by the year 2040. Now, this is the perfect opportunity for you to open an e-commerce store. If you are an independent merchant just starting with your initial store or a store owner looking to grow your empire, this guide will help you get there with 13 SEO optimized steps for 2025.

Table of Contents

Steps Involved in the Ecommerce Website Development Process

1. Decide Your Product

The first and most important step is to determine what you wish to sell. Once you know what you wish to sell, the other steps will become much easier to follow and you can align your steps according to the product you decide to sell.

Hyper-personalisation is the big thing of 2025. Stand out by choosing a niche that resonates with current consumer demands:

Eco-Friendly Products: Eco friendly packaging, Recyclable products, and products of natural origin respectively.
Smart Gadgets: Smart home applications, connected home devices, and wearables reliance.
Health & Wellness: Protein shakes, clothing, or stress relievers.

That is why selecting a narrow specialization allows you to target the audience and become the recognized leader in the spheres you cover.

2. Figure Out Your Ecommerce Business Model

Once you know what you wish to sell, it is time to decide whether you wish to sell your product to other businesses (a B2B model) or to individual customers (a B2C model). You should be very careful while making this choice because what seems perfect for an individual might not be as effective for a business organization.

Choose an ecommerce business model that matches with your business goals:

B2C (Business-to-Consumer): Business-to-Consumer model which entails directly selling products to consumers using Channels such as Shopify or Wix.
B2B (Business-to-Business): Sales of products in large quantities to other establishments.Evaluation of Merchandise:
DTC (Direct-to-Consumer): The elimination of the concept of middlemen and selling products directly to the customers from your website.
Subscription-Based Models: Expanding in 2025 and generating stable income flows in terms of revenue.

Tip: Consider specialized webs stores or DTC on social media channels, such as Instagram.

3. Know Your Audience

You must also determine your target audience before you start building a ecommerce website because it will give you enough time to plan your digital marketing strategies accordingly.

It is important to learn who your potential customers are, and this can be done using metrics from Google Analytics, SEMrush, and social media. Build buyer personas based on:

Demographics
Buying behavior
Pain points and desires

This way, your store and marketing approaches address the customers’ needs the way they will prefer it.

4. Choose a Name for Your Business

You already know the importance of branding and determining a unique name. Try to come up with a name that is short, quirky, and easy to remember.

Consequently, the best business name underlines brand recognition. Ensure it is:

Unique: Stand out from competitors.
Memorable: Easy to spell and pronounce.
Relevant: Pertains to the values of your niche or brand.

You can use the Shopify’s Name Generator or Namechk tools to check the chances of name availability for domains as well as social networks.

5. Purchase a Domain Name

The first thing that you have to do after deciding a name for your business is to purchase a matching domain name. If such a domain name is not available, someone by that name already exists. This means you have to repeat step 4.

Your domain name is your web address. Get a name that people can easily memorise and which should be related to your brand. Pair it with reliable hosting services like:

Bluehost: It is cheap and best for those who are starting a website.
Kubernetes: Excellent workflow and experience
WordPress: regular updated and ease in the process.
Cloudways: Easy to manage solutions with flexible options.

Ensure the hosting contain SSL certificates for safe transaction and quick loading.

6. Figure Out Branding for Your Business

Brands like Burger King, Ferrari, Google, Samsung, etc have established a close connection with their consumers because of their iconic logos, visual identities, and social presence. This is collectively called Branding. You have to visualize how you wish to represent your brand.

Brand identity in 2025 means something more than just a cool logo. It’s about creating a cohesive experience across all touchpoints:

Logo and Visual Identity: For this, one can use online logo maker and designer services available such as Canva or Figma and create a new logo.
Tone of Voice: Describe the tone, or the brunt of your communication that you present to your clients, for example, formal, casual, or funny.
Social Presence: Be active on the right platforms relevant to your audience; whether it’s Gen Z, which frequents TikTok or B2B users who are likely to be found on LinkedIn or similar platforms.

7. Find the Perfect Ecommerce Platform

Choose a platform that has the capability to expand with your company. The trends for 2025 also entail AI integration, mobile optimisation, and better analysis.

Some of the most popular names include:

Magento
Shopify
WooCommerce
BigCommerce
Wix
3dCart
Prestashop
Weebly
Squarespace
Volusion

You will have to do a bit of research to choose a platform that aligns with your requirements and offers a better representation of your product and business.

8. Plan a Content Strategy

A website with dynamic content appeals to the audience and also helps in conversion and sales. Planning a content strategy helps you to maintain consistency on your website. It further drives better results through social media marketing organically.

Content remains king in 2025. Plan a strategy that includes:

SEO Blogs: Reducing the website’s bounce rate through the creation of materialized search intent, writing articles that are focused on long-tail keywords.
Short-Form Videos: To reach your audience, remember to concentrate on TikTok and Instagram Reels.
Email Marketing: People who open your email have asked questions and read articles on your website – So use this information to increase conversion rates.

9. Learn Search Engine Optimization

It is one of the important phases of ecommerce website development. We recommend you learn how to optimize your website to get better rankings on various search engines. Through SEO or Search Engine Optimization, you can optimize your content while developing your website and save a lot of time during the development process.

In the year 2025 search engines are smarter. Stay ahead with these strategies:

Voice Search Optimization: Include phrasings for the conversation so that voice searches are also supported.
Core Web Vitals: Focus on high speed , Wondering if its friendly to mobile devices and keeping interactivity in mind.
Schema Markup: Showcase products, reviews, and FAQs to top the web that will make the business get more attention.

Pro Tip: You may use available SEO tools such as Ahrefs, Moz or any other SEO analysis tools to monitor and optimise on your SEO.

10. Define Product Categories

You should define the categories and assign products to each category depending on their purpose, usage, and features.

Introduce ease when it comes to navigation for your visitors. Use logical categories with filters like:

Price
Size
Material

11. Take Clear Pictures of Your Product

You need to share pictures of your products on your website. Multiple pictures that are detailed and clear will be great.

As the previous year’s consistently indicate, visuals play a significant role to conversions.

Leverage 360-degree view or AR visuals if used, to enable customers visualize products.
Make the pictures reflect the lifestyle since people can easily relate with it. tips:
Use 360-degree views or AR visuals to help customers visualize products.
Include lifestyle images for better relatability.

12. Write Catchy Product Descriptions

Write product descriptions that grab attention and then compel the user to buy your product. Practice well to master this art!

Focus not on its features but on the advantages given by it.

Delete stop words and use bolds or make it in bullet point form for easier readability and use keyword where possible.
Instead of using “Reusable produce bags” use, “Reduce plastic waste while keeping your fruits and vegetables fresh longer, offering durability and cost savings for a more sustainable shopping experience”.

13. Find the Right Shipping Software

Just sorting all the above is not enough in ecommerce website development process. Choosing a shipping software is also important because you have to deliver your products as well.

In 2025 consumers care about environment friendly shipment.

Carbon free shipping solutions such as Easyship.
Utilizing real-time tracking to increase customer’s confidence.

Ecommerce Trend for the year 2025

AI-Driven Personalization: A feature of web browsers that suggest products to buy with behaviour observed while using a browser whether by the same browser or a different one.
Sustainability: Sustainability becomes a means by which brands secure the loyalty of their customers.
Augmented Reality (AR): Virtual fitting of clothes, home furnishing, and much more.

Common Ecommerce Pitfalls to Avoid

Skipping Mobile Optimization: Over half of online shopping occurs on mobile devices.
Lengthy Checkout Processes: Use tools like Shop Pay for one-click transactions.
Under investing in Marketing: Allocate resources for paid ads and influencer campaigns.

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