Ecommerce Websites
Dissecting Ecommerce Websites
There are many components that go into building successful ecommerce websites. First, the webpage must have products! These are the different items that are being sold. Many companies that use ecommerce websites to sell a wide variety of items will have searchable categories that allow the user to refine and pinpoint the products that they need. This is often housed on the left side of the website.
When a customer is ready to buy, they must add the product they want into a “shopping cart”. This is a virtual version of the thing we use in a traditional retail store to hold the products that we intend to buy. Many companies allow customers to add this thru some type of “buy” button which is found on the individual product page.
When the customer is ready to pay for the items, they will use a “checkout” button, often located near the top right corner of the page, and sometimes found on the product page after it is added to the shopping cart. In this process, customers will enter their shipping information along with their preferred payment and shipping methods.
Many ecommerce websites offer the ability for customers to save their information for future orders. The information is stored thru user-specific login data which is password protected. The primary payment option offered is the same credit cards that people use in traditional “brick and mortar” stores. There are also third party payment agents such as PayPal that allow users to link their bank accounts and multiple credit cards.
These are the basic building blocks of an ecommerce website.
Some large ecommerce websites you may be familiar with include eBay.com and Amazon.com.
Below is an example of what a typical ecommerce website page might look like.
