eCommerce will be one of the most significant growth areas in the business economy in 2022. Many customers have gotten used to shopping online during the recent pandemic. As shoppers changed from in-store shopping to online delivery, they became accustomed to the convenience and time saved by shopping online more. Though the pandemic seems to be slowing, many customers are staying online to shop, leaving fewer shoppers for brick-and-mortar locations.
Table of Contents:
- Why eCommerce?
- Tech Stacks: What is a Tech Stack?
- Basics of a Successful Stack
- Stop Paying to Reinvent the Wheel
- 2022 Essential Tech Checklist
- Custom Solutions When You Need It
Why eCommerce?
Digital economies are growing by leaps and bounds. For any business that uses the internet, it is essential to market their products online. Businesses online are a part of the fastest-growing retail system available, and it leaves customers with higher satisfaction rates which encourages repeat purchases. According to studies, 96% of the US population shops online. What company doesn't want access to nearly 300 million shoppers?
If you are still considering opening your business online or moving your brick-and-mortar location online, then you need an eCommerce solution. Shoppers know that by going online, they are given broader access to a larger span and variety of items that they may not purchase locally. If you want to jump into the world of eCommerce, you need to know more about today's online retail tech solutions.
Tech Stacks: What is a Tech Stack?
Tech stack is a technical term that is relatively straightforward. It describes "stacking" technologies. Today, there is no reason to build an eCommerce solution from the ground up when many features can be joined together using readily available code or templates. A tech stack is when you use a variety of plug-ins or apps. These components are stacked or "joined" together to build full functionality for your site. These plug-ins could include a plug-in that processes customer payments, for example.
Today, customers expect far more from a digital storefront than a simple web page. In 2022, customers will be tech-savvy and have high expectations. You can meet those expectations by building a responsive platform that works well regardless of their access method. For example, access could include laptops, tablets, mobile devices in addition to chat or phone access to customer service solutions.
It doesn't have to be hard to get started. Today, expert developers can develop successful digital storefronts quickly if they follow a well-developed plan. Building a retail solution is more complicated, but it can be pretty easy with the use of plug-ins and apps.
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Basics of a Successful Stack
Online retail is booming, for sure, and customers are enjoying a smoother, far more efficient shopping experience. A great retailer online will focus on including user-friendly digital transaction technology and shopping interfaces. Before you start building your 'stack' of technologies to create your retail site, you should create a list of all services you will need. The stack will pull all these features into a single storefront or mobile shopping application. It is critical to know that nine distinct components are genuinely necessary to include. You may use additional apps or plug-ins, but these nine are considered essential:
- eCommerce Platform
- Payment Processing
- Product Information Management
- Lifecycle Management
- Multichannel Listing Management
- Enterprise Resource Planning
- Analytics
- Inventory/Order Management
- Digital Asset Management
Stop Paying to Reinvent the Wheel
Why turn to ready-made plug-ins and apps when building your retail solution? It will get your business up and running much faster and for a lot less money. There's no reason to pay to reinvent the wheel in 2022.
If you already have an eCommerce site, it would benefit your company to periodically review your current tech stack and what new options may be available since your first build. Then, you may be able to upgrade segments of your technologies so that your site will run smoothly and offer a robust, intuitive shopping platform for your customers.
When you plan for building scalable infrastructure, downtime for deployments and testing are minimized. Optimization is also essential for your site's success. These are simple techniques that you can use throughout your site to improve performance and load times. Using great tools ensures that you create a fast, reactive solution that your customers will enjoy using. Various tools are available to help with building your site, deployment, changes, and testing. Here are just a few you might want to review:
- AWS – Amazon Web Services has excellent features like continuous delivery and easy-to-use deployment tools. You can automate changes, and if any issues or problems are discovered later, you can use the roll-back feature to review.
- CloudFront – CloudFront offers excellent and easy solutions for solving cache issues and speeding up server requests.
- Redis – Redis improve lazy loading issues and offers suggestions for improving overall optimization.
- GTMetrix – GTMetrix is an excellent tool for measuring your site's performance. Your report will point out problem areas you can work on improving.
- Google Page Speed Insights – This tool is proficient in measuring performance in several areas. It also lists suggested improvements in a prioritized list.
- Moz – This tool is nearly essential for a tremendous optimized site. It also performs keyword searches, offers suggestions, and gives you a comparison of how you rate alongside your competitors.
Using a few overlapping tools can help locate issues that may be impacting the performance. You may find one tool more helpful in one area than another. It only takes moments to run an analysis – go ahead and run a few and compare notes.
2022 Essential Tech Checklist
It can be a significant undertaking to take a business online and compete with other digital retail stores. Your reputation is on the line. You also want to bring some of the quality, environment, and feeling of your brick-and-mortar locations virtual. Before you start building your store, you should review the following checklist.
- Single Page Applications: Single-page applications (SPA) are the number one choice for 2022 technology platforms for small to medium organizations. Developers use SPAs for fast deployment and simplicity. It starts with a single index.html file but is highly scalable as a base for additional features.
- Mobile-First Methodology: Mobile-first is just that; start your design from the mobile end. Mobile pages have more restrictions. Your site can be developed and deployed faster by creating it with a mobile-first approach. Want to know how your site is performing? Test it using the Google-Mobile-Friendly Test.
- React: This is a popular JavaScript framework that employs server-side scripting. It is often used within the framework of SPAs. It can process user input and respond accordingly. Next.js offers fast server-side-rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG).
- Dynamic Rendering: Try dynamic rendering when you are looking to jump up the search engine listings quickly. Using dynamic rendering displays data so that bots can more easily process any JavaScript. Dynamic rendering speeds up delivery for Google bots and load time for users. Try prerender.io for an easy solution. There are various free tools on the marketplace to help with optimization. A few of the top choices are HotJar, Screaming Frog, Google Search Console, WAVE, and GTMetrix.
- Proper CDN Set-Up: Top eCommerce sites use a content delivery network or CDN. Delivery refers to how quickly your site loads in various places across the globe. Ideally, you want the customer in California to have the same load time as the customer in the UK. Content Delivery Network refers to geographically distributed servers that can provide a faster delivery in multiple regions.
- Optimization: If you want to compete effectively, try optimization. If you use optimization correctly as you build your site, you will boost your ranking. Top rankings will bring you more traffic, and conversion rates equal higher returns.
Custom Solutions When You Need It
Many eCommerce marketplaces like Shopify and BigCommerce have excellent easy-to-use templates that can get the ball rolling for smaller organizations. These can work as a solution for larger companies but may require custom code additions from expert developers. At DataCose, we can help you find the right solutions for your eCommerce plans. We can also build you a custom platform.
If you are looking to top your market, you still need to get seen. Being on the first page of search results means sales. Talk to our expert development team to help you find a world-class solution for your digital marketplace. Fill out the DataCose contact form below for a no-obligation review.