Building an eCommerce website is a multi-faceted and complex process that takes time and effort. In that sense, custom eCommerce website development is more efficient than handling it yourself. 

The following article will discuss websites tailored to your needs, called “custom eCommerce website development.” This post will walk you through everything related to the “custom approach,” from the definition and the pros and cons to how it is essential to your business. 

Let’s start with defining what we mean by custom website development. 

1. What is a custom eCommerce website development?

According to Forbes, custom eCommerce website development requires a team of developers using a programming language (e.g., PHP, Ruby) and a framework (Laravel, Rails) to build a website customized for your business. 

The website is created to fit specific things, from the audience persona to business objectives and requirements. Not only does it match your expectation, but it also gives your target audience a good user experience. A custom website is uniquely yours. The design, flow, and functionality can all be built to support your message and make a visit there more meaningful for your audience.

A custom website is uniquely yours

Such an approach is appropriate when: 

• The website needs unique features and design
• The business has outgrown platform solutions like WordPress or Shopify
• High-level security is required
• There are complicated integrations
• The page load time of platform-built websites is too slow, and it negatively affects SEO

Custom website development requires more resources than template-based solutions. There’s no denying that it will take more time and money. But don’t worry; everything has its own price, and you will harvest what you plant from scratch. 

The custom website is one of the outstanding trends in web development in 2023. If you want to appear current to your customer, then adopting the custom concept could be a good idea. You could also learn more about other trends regarding website development in the following article published in Kvy Blog.

>>> Read more: Software Development Outsourcing in Singapore: Trends to look out for in 2023

2. The difference between custom eCommerce development – open-source – other approaches

If you’re reading this, you might know that various development platforms exist worldwide. Here’re the top 3 common approaches to building an eCommerce website.  

• Template-based eCommerce website builders: A few examples can be mentioned, such as Shopify or BigCommerce. This approach is easy to use but fails to provide enough flexibility regarding changes in the core code. Hence, when you decide to expand your offering, a template-based solution may no longer support the scaling of your business.
• Custom eCommerce website development: This tactic allows you to create a unique platform with features and functionality that are aligned with your business needs. 
• Open-source software: When you want to get your business done as soon as possible, using open-source software might be helpful. It is usually defined as source code freely available to anyone who intends to edit it and distribute their version without any restrictions or licensing fees. However, open-source eCommerce platforms can also result in higher expenses. You must pay more for fee-based extensions or newly developed plugins. 

Custom eCommerce website development allows you to create a unique platform with features and functionality that are aligned with your business needs

Among 3 approaches, custom eCommerce website development is highly recommended regardless of the fact that it is the most expensive one. 

However, remember that there is not even a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Everything has its pros and cons. Therefore, you have to use A/B testing to see which works best for you.

Now that you know what a custom eCommerce website is, it’s time to consider both benefits and drawbacks to make a thoughtful decision. 

3. The Pros and Cons

3.1 The Pros 

Statis from Forbes revealed that 79% of shoppers shop online at least once a month. However, only 2.17 percent of eCommerce visits convert. Moreover, shoppers view 32 pages on average before making a purchase. Therefore, a good-developed website can partly determine the sale and traffic performance of your online store. 

In the articles published on Medium, Daniel Carter from Manhattan Tech Support says: “When it comes to software initiatives, stakeholders are often enthusiastic and want many features. This is before the costs have been calculated”. So if you think that way, look at these pros, and you will have a second thought. 

3.1.1 Unique web design

A custom website is designed to suit your company’s goals specifically. It is based on your target audience’s behaviors, your business’s objectives, and the characteristics of your market. You can’t always do that with templates because a template-based website is for a variety of businesses to use, not only you. 

A custom website is designed to suit your company’s goals specifically

3.1.2 Scalability and Flexibility

Launching a website is not the endpoint. Many possible problems can arise along the way. Or your business goal hasn’t been the same in the coming years. At that time, you have no choice but to adjust the website to these changes. You can’t do that with a pre-built theme, which forces your company to make decisions based on the template’s framework. A custom eCommerce website development is more adaptable to meet your needs and future goals. 

Launching a website is not the endpoint

3.1.3 Customer experience

As a service provider, your experience should be your number one priority. Whatever you do should always be for the customer’s good. Building an eCommerce website is not an exception.  

50% of consumers believe that website design is crucial to a business’s brand. In contrast, 75% will abandon the shipping cart due to slow-loading sites. So if enhancing your customer experience is vital, let’s start with a custom website design that gives your customer the best online shopping experience ever. 

50% of consumers believe that website design is crucial to a business’s brand

3.1.4 SEO 

A custom eCommerce website development has already considered the importance of better rankings in Search engines. As a result, they always bring clients better search engine visibility. In addition, the ease of use, pleasing interface, and scalability of a well-designed website will score high with the engines based on SEO UX factors.

A custom eCommerce website development has already considered the importance of better rankings in Search engines

3.1.5 Support 

When maintaining an eCommerce website, always looking for a dedicated team on your side is essential. When we say dedicated team, we mean “a full-scale dedicated software development team to quickly create, design, integrate, and maintain your products’ demands and requirements.” The more supportive they are, the more likely they become reliable partners supporting clients and caring for unforeseen issues. 

When maintaining an eCommerce website, always looking for a dedicated team on your side is essential

3.2 The Cons

3.2.1 High expenses 

The Medium platform has an article named “6 Ways to cut custom eCommerce website development costs”. The title has told us one thing about the most common concern regarding custom website development: Price. If you opt for a custom eCommerce platform, your initial expenses may be high. 

According to Website Builder Expert, the average cost of a basic website created by a freelance website designer is $6,760. However, a custom website design usually costs a minimum of $5,000 but can go upwards of $10,000 for more complex projects. The cost of website design in Singapore is also high. 

According to Website Builder Expert, the average cost of a basic website created by a freelance website designer is $6,760

3.2.2 Time-consuming 

Building a website is a complex process that requires a long time and effort. Launching a website is not the whole story. You might need the help of developers to maintain the website all along the way. In that sense, designing an eCommerce website wouldn’t only take 1 or 2 months, but it could last longer than you expect. 

Designing an eCommerce website wouldn’t only take 1 or 2 months, but it could last longer than you expect

4. Sum it up 

There are various kinds of approaches when building an eCommerce website. You can make a good decision based on your business goals and requirements. You have to pay higher expenses when opting for custom eCommerce website development. However, a flexible, customizable, scalable eCommerce website to match your customer base could outweigh those initial costs. 

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about a custom eCommerce website development company in Singapore!