Step-by-Step Guide To Develop a Fully-Functional Magento eCommerce Website

You got a great product. In the past, you have done a lot of research about the market and your competitors. You have a very strong business plan. Great, but now what? The next big thing is to start building your online store. And there is nothing better than Magento to bring life to your online retail business.

Magento is a complete solution offering comprehensive features to retailers. Magento is downloaded approximately 5000 times daily. More than 7500 eCommerce retailers have migrated to Magento during 2019.

However, the process of developing an eCommerce site or migrating to Magento is a little difficult to follow, specifically when you are coming from a non-technical background. To help you out, we’ve come up with detailed steps to develop a fully functional eCommerce website using Magento.

Let’s dive into the Magento website development process

Step #1 Conduct a detailed requirement analysis

It is one of the first steps for building a fully-functional Magento eCommerce site. Starting from website structure, designing, functions, extensions, and integrations to the project milestones, you have to work on every aspect of developing an eCommerce site for your business. You must have to perform the requirement analysis for your website.

Step #2 Select Magento hosting provider

Your online store’s performance, efficiency, speed, and accessibility rely heavily on the hosting platform you’ve chosen. Therefore, you must spare enough time to analyze your online store and decide which hosting platform can serve your needs more efficiently.

You can choose shared web hosting, VPS web hosting, dedicated web hosting, or cloud-based web hosting based on your requirements and budget. Dedicated web hosting is the preferred option by most online retailers since it helps you easily manage traffic to your online store. However, if you are unsure about the website traffic and have enough funds, you can go for cloud-based hosting since it can be adjusted easily based on traffic fluctuations.

Step #3 Install the latest version of Magento

To begin with Magento’s website development, you will have to install the latest version of Magento. You can visit the official Magento website and create an account. The next thing you have to do is choose how you want to get the Magento version and install it. Usually, there are three methods to install Magento – Composer, Git, and Archive.

Once you select the desired method to download and install, you can get the Magento Open Source meta package and start creating the new project for your online venture. Meanwhile, it would help to start working on the domain name suitable to your brand.

Step #4 Start your store designing

The next step is to start designing your online store. The easiest way to do this is to set up an eye-catchy, responsive, and user-friendly theme to grab the target audience’s attention. There are a couple of ways to start designing for your online store:

• Purchase premium themes. Use a default Magento theme. When you set up your online store, you will have a theme called LUMA by default. You have to add your logo and a little tweak it to make it relevant to your brand.
• If you don’t find the default theme useful, you have multiple options to choose from the premium Magento themes.
• Develop a custom theme from scratch. If you feel none of the themes can match your standard, the best way is to get a custom theme developed with the help of Magento eCommerce development services. Such custom themes could help you reflect your business or brand more effectively and reduce bounce rates. However, to make the modifications, you will need help from the Magento development company.                                                                                                                              

Step #5 Work on the backend of your online store

In parallel with front-end development, you can start working on the backend activities such as configuring default Magento functionalities, installing the extensions, and integrating the payment gateway with your online store.

Also, you can start developing custom functionalities and features for your online store. You can even customize the extensions based on the business needs and integrate third-party applications for your online store.

The backend development needs great coding skills, and you may have to get help from the Magento development company to do the needful. Such professional Magento eCommerce development services providers can help you with configuring language, currencies, email templates, and importing product data.

Step #6 Perform rigorous testing

Now that you’re ready with your Magento online store, it is time to start testing it for the glitches, if any. You must check your online store for browser compatibility, page-load speed, stress testing, security testing, integration testing, and database testing. Make sure you validate all the possible business cases to ensure your online store is bug-free.

Step #7 Prepare for the launch

Once you are done with the development and testing, it is time to prepare your store for the launch. Make sure you validate a few key parameters such as:

• Optimize website
• Platform performance testing
• Identify and resolve any other internal errors
• Check for the responsiveness of a theme
• Validate speed of the online store

And there you go for launching your online store!

Starting an online store using Magento is not as easy as walking on a smooth surface. However, you can easily set up and launch your online store with the proper guidance and support from the professional Magento development company. Are you looking for someone to provide you with professional Magento eCommerce development services? Get in touch with our Magento experts to know how we can help you set up your eCommerce website!