Finding a place under the fierce sun of online shopping, a crowded and saturated beach of good-looking competitors, is not an easy feat in 2023. With numbers counting up to 24 million online stores, you must deliver a high-quality web store with all essential ingredients and something unique.
The online retail is showing no stopping. In fact, by 2040, Nasdaq research thinks 95% of all purchases will be online. So, if you have a product or want to expand your physical store, there is little doubt that you should invest in an e-commerce business model.
Luckily, numerous quality platforms can help you start an online store. However, to create a feature-rich, cutting-edge solution sprinkled with the latest plug-ins and technologies, you should probably consider custom e-commerce development.
Advantages of custom software development
Software development is a bustling industry that offers ready-made solutions like e-commerce development platforms, CRM, ERP, and other products in other niches. Since it’s hard to fit your individual business into finished products seamlessly, you will probably have to hire developers to adjust the off-the-shelf modules. While the final result might be satisfactory, if you want more benefits and to stand out, creating a custom solution might be a better option, especially in a highly competitive e-commerce industry.
Software development companies building your solution will enable a high level of personalization. The product will be created to meet all your needs. You can add features and technologies outside of what ready-made products offer in their packages. Tailor your solution to fit project plans and entertain the target audience.
Initial costs of custom development are higher than off-the-shelf software. However, in the long run, a custom solution doesn’t require costly subscriptions, and recurring expenses are lower and more focused on maintenance. If you choose to create solutions on open-source software, you will avoid paying licensing fees. Simultaneously, off-the-shelf products also need custom development to add new features, and with custom software, you will be better positioned to stay on top of the technology game.
Each software solution comes with a set of security features. In custom development, you can incorporate all of the currently leading solutions and insist on extensive testing to ensure there are no vulnerabilities in the code.
If you choose a development company wisely, you can rely on continuous support and maintenance. A personalized relationship is something you won’t get with off-the-shelf solutions. However, you do need to check the developers you employ. Successful projects and longevity are keys to relying on custom ecommerce development and having peace of mind.
One crucial aspect of an online store is scalability. If your business takes off, you will want an easy way to expand your website and add more product categories and items. Custom development can think of that in the beginning, laying the foundation for future growth.
Another essential feature is integration with third-party solutions. You will want your online shop to integrate with existing company ERP seamlessly or to include advanced payment options.
Magento is one of the favorites if you’re looking for an e-commerce platform that blends into custom software development benefits. An open-source solution with thousands of developers in a broad community that emphasizes scalability, speed, and third-party support.
Why is Magento popular among e-commerce developers?
The battle for every customer is rampaging in the e-commerce industry. To facilitate the countless online stores, businesses can choose from various e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and Wix.
As an open-source solution, and because of its longevity in the market, Magento is considered the top choice for custom development. But what makes it so appealing?
Magento has a massive community of developers because it powers online shops for over 15 years. It is estimated that around 300,000 developers globally work with this platform. You can find reliable help, quality plug-ins, and support, which helps the platform stay relevant and competitive.
Online retail increasingly relies on smartphones, with up to 70% of online purchases coming through mobile. Magento has built-in support for HTML5 and responsive design, meaning your website should look good on any screen size. Responsiveness includes flexible grids and layouts, as well as the handling of images.
Security is a major concern for both the Magento e-commerce development company and the client. The platform comes with numerous security options and extensions. You can find strong data encryption through the AES-256 algorithm, session and cookie validation, and CSRF protection. Building on that, you can include ReCAPTCHA and two-factor authentication to improve your security.
Developers will appreciate the Magento platform with predesigned components, elements, and themes. Whether you design a site from scratch or use some of the existing items, Magento offers broad customization options.
Aside from looking good, you will want your online store to perform well and attract traffic. Magento has a comprehensive set of SEO features built into the platform. You can add custom anchor text for navigation links and change the page title and H1 tags. You will also get canonical URLs that help avoid content duplication, and its CMS has advanced options for organic link building. Another thing Magento thrives on is page loading speed, which is essential for SEO and customer experience and retention.
Possible disadvantages of custom development
Custom software development is not ideal for all clients, and if you need a super basic online store with only a few items, you might consider doing it by yourself. Some of the issues you could encounter are high initial costs.
Small companies might be turned off by the cost of hiring a team of developers despite having benefits in the long run. If you’re not experienced and don’t look thoroughly, you might hire the wrong vendor, which could cost you time and resources to get it right.
If you’re in a hurry and must launch an online store quickly, you could also try easy-to-use platforms. Custom development may take months to deliver satisfactory results.
Conclusion
If you want to make your online store competitive and attractive, it should stand out from the crowd. This is not an easy feat, with hundreds of thousands of e-commerce websites. Choosing custom e-commerce development to create unique shopping experiences might be your best choice.
Personalization, adding custom features, and most attractive e-commerce solutions are a few reasons that can help you elevate over competitors. If you choose an open-source platform like Magento, you can build upon already robust SEO, security, and customization options while having speedy page loading and broad third-party solution support.
