Top eCommerce Website Development Requirements You Should Be Aware Of

If you’re familiar with the concept of Web 3.0, you know that the way we handle financial transactions is undergoing a shift.  Blockchain technology has changed the momentum of how we do business on the Internet, so much that the next version of it will be based on this technology. 

This means anyone currently operating or hoping to work in eCommerce must be aware of forthcoming changes, or risk losing your consumer base due to non-compliance. In this article, we disclose all the relevant details about new eCommerce web development requirements.  Hopefully, it can serve as the foundational checklist for your online business.

Fundamental eCommerce Website Development Requirements

The following are the most basic requirements for developing and maintaining an eCommerce site in 2024. Most are common sense requirements that have always been a part of the market, but some may have evolved. They are provided more for posterity, but also to provide foundational understanding for those new to online sales. 

Payment Options

Before any considerations about accepting other peoples’ money can occur, there must be a discussion about how. The tried-and-true vendors still apply, but the sheer volume of third-party apps widens the field exponentially.  Consider this list to find a method that best suits your intended market:

• PCI Compliance – The term PCI simply refers to the ‘payment card industry’ and compliance is issued by the PCI Security Standards Council. This is another bade that visitors will absolutely expect to see on your website if they intend to spend money. It signifies that you are authorized to receive payments by the most trusted source of validation, and more importantly, it is a mandatory step for anyone hoping to make online exchanges using major credit cards. 
• Credit and Debit Cards – Direct credit or debit card payments are still the go-to method for accepting payments on the Internet. Staples like Visa, MasterCard, and Discover have yet to release their hold among vendors, with Visa still the most commonly accepted form of payment anywhere, as they’ve cut into MasterCard’s consumer base considerably over the years. 
• Third-Party Vendors – Using services like PayPal and Google Pay is a part of most shoppers’ budgets, so it’s a good idea to consider which ones apply to the current market, and which up-and-coming vendors might supplant them.
• Direct-to-bank – Accepting payment directly from a customer’s bank has always been a viable option, though most people avoid putting in their routing numbers unless necessary. Still, it might be worth incurring the extra cost on your end if the product beckons an older consumer base.
• BitCoin, NFTs, and “other” – An entire article can be written about the implications of Web 3.0 on eCommerce, but since it’s still early days, it’s enough to know now that every eCommerce company should be looking into it. The vague reference to “other”  infers whichever abstract form blockchain payments might take in the future, since it’s only limited currently to what is commonly accepted rather than what’s possible.

Data Security Requirements for eCommerce

Any content creator or website designer who deals with money or health must subscribe to the “YMYL” principle, short for “your money or your life.” This takes the popular robber’s catchphrase and uses it figuratively to denote: any web content dealing with a consumer’s money or their lives (health) must adhere to the strictest standards of honesty and security. 

Security is the biggest concern for any eCommerce vendor, so we cover it more thoroughly than other requirements since breaches will negate all the efforts you’ve put forth to attract customers. As a result should be one of the very first items of business when building an e-commerce website. 

This listing covers the ‘your money’ portion of that principle, with security considerations for each layer of an online transaction:

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and HTTPS Encryption

SSL is the standard security protocol for virtually all protected websites and is an absolute must if you expect visitors to feel comfortable operating on your eCommerce website. Discerning visitors will check for icons like the one above, or the “https” at the beginning of your website address that indicates SSL/TLS encryption. Pages that don’t require information like blogs and news sites can get by with an ‘http’ connection but not with eCommerce sites.

Authentication

This is standard for any website that takes consumer information, but needs to meet higher standards for eCommerce than, say, a simple newsletter. Consumers might balk at the extra steps like requiring a capital letter and a certain amount of numbers in their passwords, but they’ll appreciate not having their information stolen.

Moving forward, we’ll likely see more authentication requirements to meet the changing identity protocols of operating with blockchain technology in Web 3.0.  Currently, we already see many variations on a two-step process such as one-time passwords sent to the users’ emails but we can expect more streamlined handshakes on all platforms in the future.

Cloud Storage, Backups, and Recovery

Legacy systems were used to operate off centralized servers that served as the backend for each e-commerce website.  All the sensitive financial customer information was stored there, which made it a prime target for malicious attacks.  

Today, website developers have shifted toward the cloud for their decentralized hubs, greatly lowering the inherent risk of storing data in one place. Cloud storage has several other benefits for eCommerce beyond decentralization, however, such as: 

• Better security for data in transit from user to host and back, due to decentralized nodes. Cloud services are especially useful against Direct Denial-of-Service (DDoS). A DDoS attack is when a black hat floods a process with extra traffic to prevent users from logging in, often contacting the affected with a timely solution at the same time.  The decentralized nature of the cloud means there are many more avenues into a system, so you can keep selling while the problem is addressed behind the scenes.
• The most reliable cloud providers – e.g. Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon Web Services (AWS)–are at the cutting edge of cybersecurity. As a result, their respective platforms will have additional layers of encryption and further protections on top of your own internal measures.
• Virtualization through cloud computing is one of the most effective ways to maintain data backups and recovery for e-commerce businesses. Lack of physical necessity negates the risk of natural disasters, and redundancies are much easier to create and maintain. An iron-clad backup and recovery system should be among the first priorities for an eCommerce operation.
• The objective of every business is to grow, and if you’re doing well in all the extras, the biggest problem becomes how to handle all the new customers. The evolution of the Internet itself is based on creating more scalable solutions for big data, and a modular system should help prepare your e-commerce business for the eventuality of success.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence continues to become more a part of our daily lives through mobile devices and smart homes, so it tracks that any service-based website should keep up.  Competing with the likes of Amazon and Temu is unlikely for any startup eCommerce website, but there are many lessons therein about how to present consumers with items they might buy.

AI chatbots that can assist with simple inquiries are also useful, but not necessarily a must. In fact, leveraging AI to present consumers with relevant information will negate many of these straightforward inquiries. Of course, the effectiveness of such presentations is only useful if information about policies and procedures is available, so that becomes a mandatory part of effective AI assistance.

More Responsible, More Mobile

We can categorize this one under “goes without saying, but needs to be said”: every ecommerce website must accommodate mobile shoppers. It’s no longer a trend to shop online, but twice as common as shopping on a desktop. It is more logical to design websites with mobile at the forefront and desktop considerations coming later these days.

Responsive design is imperative of course, but also the expectancy that the website is going to support an app one day. As with any front-facing endeavor, familiarizing shoppers with aesthetics, branding, and functionality is all part of becoming their go-to source for the type of goods you provide.

Seeking External Help Through Outsourcing

Even equipped with a solid technological foundation for your eCommerce business, it’s pragmatic to research possible outsourcing options for certain parts of your website. Maybe you have a team that’s strong with design but struggles with the more technical aspects of functionality.

Fortunately, there are resources available for both new eCommerce businesses and those undergoing a transition. To find useful information about how you can outsource your next website project, or to simply explore possible solutions as a backup option, consider visiting our www.devoutsourcing.com to find out more.