Everything starts with an idea.

So, you need to develop an online store. What to do? We go on the Internet, google – we see a bunch of offers from accessible designers to solutions for indecently tidy sums.

Indeed, creating a website can be a severe expense if you want something unusual and build a website entirely from scratch. However, suppose you are an entrepreneur who wants to make a sane, working website with a good design for an optimal budget. In that case, this can also be done.

Where? We have. How? Let’s say.

What to choose and how not to get lost in the wilds of motley offers? Let’s figure it out. Let’s not beat around the bush, but immediately put all the cards on the table. If you are going to create an online store, then you have two main options:

1. Make a completely new unique website
2. Use a standard solution

Each option for creating an online store has its pros and cons. For this reason, different execution options are suitable for different types of businesses.

Let’s analyze the option of creating a unique site. Such a solution looks, at first glance, quite attractive since the result should be an outstanding web product made according to all your wishes, having clear goals and objectives, and directly participating in your business processes. However, this solution has two main drawbacks:

• Long (4-6 months, or even more);
• Expensive (the price of developing a unique store starts from 700 thousand rubles and moves smoothly towards infinity). This is not surprising since several performers are involved in the process (project manager, designer, layout designer, programmer, Internet marketer, content manager, SEO specialist, and others).

Such a decision is justified given the high uniqueness of your project, which is entirely possible. Still, it rarely happens, especially if you create a site for the first time.

The decision to make a new site was made because there was no convenient standard solution for this project on the market. There are practically no online stores of selective perfumery in Russia, so we decided to make a new one – bright and interestingly filled. In addition, we have added exciting features – choosing a fragrance, ordering a gift for a friend or girlfriend, a personal account, an intelligent bonus program, and other solutions. All this could not be done with a specific answer.

You know, the creation of such a store can be compared with tailoring a suit to order – yes, it is possible to pick up buttons, material, and lining, but you will have to pay 10-20 times more than for a suit in a good store and excellent material, but by standard standards. You can overpay, but you should seriously consider it worth it. It might be worth it if you:

• Take the creation of your company’s brand very seriously: corporate identity, logo, author’s fonts, arrangement of elements – everything must be in the same style;
• It would be best if you had unique functionality. For example, a personal account for a dealer, an order constructor, an online calculator, and its unique payment system.
• Your business is in a niche with a high level of competition. Suppose you sell furniture and plastic windows and also build houses and cottages. In that case, you regularly encounter severe competitors in a niche. A typical site cannot always clearly distinguish against the background of numerous competitors.

Now let’s consider buying that very “suit” by standard standards. So, an alternative to “tailoring to order” is a standard solution based on a template. It should be noted that it is more straightforward but, nevertheless, quite reliable. This approach requires less financial and time resources but limits you to certain functional limits. What are the benefits of a specific solution:

It’s time to order from an online store.

Fill out the form, and we will contact you and find the best solution.

Specialized companies or web studios develop such solutions for subsequent mass sales to users. That is, when the developers spent a serious amount to create the store, for example, 1.5 million rubles. Then, in order not to use it alone, they decided to sell it, but already at 50 thousand rubles.

That is, it turns out to be an excellent “suit,” which after the purchase needs to be adjusted a little (ask your mother or give it to the studio) and will generally be no worse than what is ordered. Minuses:

• The declared functionality of a typical solution may differ from reality. That is, it may well happen that the description of the finished solution will diverge from reality. Something may not be, and something may not work.

• It is necessary to translate and adapt the standard solution. Many templates are in English, requiring “customization” to “local” standards.

• There may be problems with information security and hidden advertising, and external links.

• The presence in the network of “self-made” CMS (administration systems), through which the administration (management) of the website is carried out. Such CMS may be limited in functionality and have problems with search engine optimization in the future. In addition, in most cases, web programmers refuse to work with such products or agree only to the increased payment due to complexity.

Note that our experience with specific sites eliminates this approach’s above disadvantages. We are familiar with all the solutions on the market. We know the pitfalls.

As for the fourth point, CMS (Content Management System) is an important detail when creating an online store. CMS is a platform for site administration, filling it with content and content editing. Simply put, this is the engine on which your site will run and what you will interact with to fill it.

Engines are different: paid and free. Some studios make their own. The free ones often have minimal functionality. The “self-written” ones have a lot of flaws and in which case you won’t be able to change the service provider. You are literally “tied” to one specific developer (other webmasters then do not always understand how to change the program code if necessary and work with this engine). Therefore, the optimal solution is a licensed CMS.

There are several leading (famous) CMS. For example, 1C-Bitrix (by the way, we are the gold partner of 1C-Bitrix) is the optimal platform for commercial projects and the only certified CMS in Russia. The license costs adequate money and is easy to use. In addition, the use of Bitrix makes it more easily integrate the store with 1C than other systems.

Here is an example of another of the online stores we have created. Zvuk DV has been operating in the car audio and security systems market for more than 20 years.

The client understood that the time had come to go online, but at the same time, he could not afford severe investments in the site’s development. They suggested launching an online store based on a standard solution from Agence 25 and decided on that.

The entire project, with all software licenses, setting up integration with 1C, and adapting a standard solution, cost the client 200 thousand rubles. It should be noted that the individual development of such a site would cost about 600 – 800 thousand rubles. The same functionality with a benefit of 3-4 times.

The whole layer of work, from the client’s application to the first purchase from the site, took only 4 working weeks. Today, the created online store actively solves the client’s problems. It helps customers easily find and buy the right products on any device.

In our opinion, it will be quite enough for you to make an online store according to a standard solution if you:

• Small business or an enterprise that is at the stage of initial launch;
• A company with limited resources to create an online store and its further promotion;
• An entrepreneur who decides to test a new direction or “probe” some new niche;
• Startup project;

Personal brand (for example, a personal blog site of a professional plumber, electrician, designer, etc.).

As you have noticed, creating an online store carries a specific set of risks and pitfalls. Therefore, you should carefully and with an eye to the future choose the solution that is right for you. And if you have decided to favor a standard solution, congratulations – you have saved a lot of time and money, and very soon, you will have a working online store.

For your site to be working and selling, and it would not have to be changed in a year, our team enters the battle without sparing itself. Why WE? We answer.

Well, ahead of two weeks of hard work. We will start it by talking with the customer, that is, with you, understanding the specifics of your business, taking into account the development prospects and the actual situation on the market. Then, we will conduct a serious and detailed analysis of competitors. All this data will become the basis for choosing a comfortable CMS for work and the proper standard solution. We will choose something that will last longer and will not require rework in a year when the customer’s business will develop.

The fact is that the site where standard solutions are placed (it is called the marketplace) is quite extensive, there are many offers, but there are only a few adequate among them. If you go to this site, you can see many requests. Their prices vary depending on the functionality and quality. For example, the declared functionality of a typical solution may differ from reality. In the description, we find one piece of information, but in fact, we get a situation where some functions do not work, but some do not. Without experience and help, it is easy to run into trouble.

Dozens of made websites allow us to navigate with confidence and select the right solutions for your tasks.

After choosing a standard solution, we proceed to the stage of adapting it to a specific client and his tasks. This is where the primary layer of work and all the magic happens. It begins with the study of the logic of the project. Then, we think through the nuances of the structure of a specific solution and discuss and supplement them with the customer to achieve maximum synchronization of ideas with the final product.

Based on the selected template of the future online store, we develop a new general style: we design the pages in the right colors and integrate branding and company elements. Quite an exciting and essential process of creating an attractive shell of your store – a showcase, that is, something that will hook a future client and won’t let go 🙂 We create page layouts and interface elements. We think over the site’s convenient search and navigation components (product categories, filters).

The final step is one of the most important. You need to set up an online store. Here we are working on interaction with all kinds of third-party services – integration with 1C, setting up payments, delivery, telephony, CRM (a particular program that helps keep all your customers in one place, improve the quality of work with them and automate work).

We put everything together so that the buyer goes to the site, adds the product to the cart, pays, and receives it. We strive to make everything easy and intuitive.

When everything is ready, we test and make changes to the site. At this stage, the final product is already visible. Here it is essential to try on the role of a buyer, carefully walk through the site, and check the smooth operation of all processes from search to payment. Finally, we set up analytics tools and launch the site if everything is in order.

Thus, by contacting Agence 25, you get not just an online store but the support and solid shoulder of a professional team capable of solving the entire range of tasks related to promoting the company and creating its image in the digital space.