Our eCommerce Website Design Solutions For Businesses in Tasmania [updated 2022]

If you've ever looked into building an online store, you've probably heard of platforms such as Shopify, Wix and Squarespace.

While each eCommerce platform has a range of pros and cons, figuring out which solution will work for your business is half the struggle and can be incredibly frustrating.

At Wakeford Digital, we deliver straightforward eCommerce website design services for businesses in Hobart and Tasmania.

In this article, we detail our eCommerce setups that makes the process of selling your products and services online, easy.

What is eCommerce web design?

eCommerce stands for 'electronic commerce' - or selling your products or services digitally as opposed to physically in a store.

A common misconception is that eCommerce stores have to be big to be successful, like you see with your favourite clothes or sports store.

A successful eCommerce website can range in size and sell as much or little as necessary.

Benefits of an eCommerce website design for businesses can include:

• you can sell anytime, anywhere;
• gain new customers through being found online;
• a one-stop hub for your business and products that you can refer customers towards;
• provide discounts, deals and bargains; as well as
• share more information about your products.

What do I need to consider with eCommerce websites?

There are a few considerations when choosing what eCommerce web design solution works for your business and how you want to sell online.

Budget‍

The cost of the platform is a main consideration when suggesting an eCommerce option.

The nature of eCommerce websites (storing products, check out process, storing more files and pages) mean that they are going to be more expensive than a traditional websites.

While some platforms may be on the cheaper end, don't discount your time and effort (and the cost of this) in getting setup and learning how to use the platform.

Functionality‍

How big and what features your eCommerce website needs are also a key considerations.

How many products you wish to sell, what features (coupons, digital downloads etc.) and what product variants are types of questions can all help narrow down which solution is going to be best for you.

Integrations and Marketing

The link between eCommerce websites and social media platforms (such as Instagram and Facebook) is continually blurring.

Make sure that your eCommerce website can be integrated with your social media to ensure a clear and consistent buying experience for your visitors.

You may also wan to consider your potential need for a point of sales (POS) system.

What eCommerce options do you offer for businesses in Tasmania?

Our eCommerce solutions are constantly evolving, as we create solutions based on a range of requirements while aiming to make the web design process easy.

In 2022, our eCommerce web design setups for business in Hobart and Tasmania include:

1. Full Webflow eCommerce Website

For businesses who want a simple, yet powerful and consistent branded eCommerce website experience, we recommend Webflow's eCommerce platform.

This setup is preferable as it keeps everything within the same platform - meaning you can update your content, products and full online presence all in the same place.

This also has the benefit of being a website first, as opposed to a shop, meaning you're not limited to a specific arrangement of page types like just a blog or about page.

Benefits of the Webflow eCommerce setup include:

• a consistent website and shop experience, all housed in the same platform;
• it's comparably affordable to other platforms;
• it meets the needs of simple shops;
• product variants are achievable (i.e colours, sizes etc);
• no template costs, no add-on costs, no plugin costs etc.;
• benefit from a beautifully designed website (not limited to template 'features');
• Wakeford Digital on board to help setup and manage your store;

These all sound great, however there are some limitations which we're open about.

Currently Webflow's eCommerce platform is limited in advanced features compared to something like Shopify, so we suggest another setup for businesses looking to sell online who require:

• coupon, gift cards and those next layer of features (for now);
• POS sales;
• subscriptions or selling digital products (coming soon); or
• a fluid postage setup.

Wondering how much our eCommerce websites cost? Head here for our prices for small to medium Tasmanian stores with Webflow's eCommerce system.

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2. Webflow website with Shopify Buy Button (Shopify Lite) Integration

As above, this setup combines the benefits of Webflow as a website platform with most of the advanced features of Shopify's eCommerce platform.

The Buy Button integration means that you can still have a seamless checkout experience - i.e. the shop and products are still on your website - but the products themselves are housed in Shopify and benefit from the platform.

Benefits of the Webflow website + Shopify Lite setup include:

• seamlessly integrate eCommerce within a website;
• consistent branding achieved;
• tap into more advanced Shopify features;
• utilise the clean Shopify checkout system;
• better product, category and collection management;
• affordable cost for the outcome;

What's the downside? Adding products in this setup becomes a little fiddly, so we don't recommend this for massive stores or stores that have constantly changing products.

In saying that (and as always) Wakeford Digital gives full assistance and tutorials on how to link products from Shopify to Webflow.

Our Webflow + Shopify Lite setup is probably our most commonly recommended setup for small to medium sized business in Hobart and Tasmania - if you're interested in learning more, enquire about your website project today.

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3. Webflow website with full Shopify website

Combining a fully functional website with a full Shopify website means we can utilise the power of both.

AZZA Pacific have this setup because they required an advanced store (consultant pricing, lots of products etc.) but Shopify didn't easily cater for a full consultant list, newsletter hub, layout gallery etc.

This is an ideal setup for businesses who do have 30+ products and cannot operate without some advanced functionality.

Our primary hesitation with this setup is the overall cost, having to pay for a full Webflow site plan as well as a full Shopify website (and the template, plugins, add-ons etc.).

Another consideration is the bit of disconnect between the two, for example, different places to log in, different URL's and different processes.

This works fine for the AZZA team who have directors that operate the website and directors that operate the shop - and we bridged the gap by creating a link on the website to the shop, and vice versa, however ultimately it opens the experience up in a new window which may not be desirable.

The "Advanced" store is a general indication of price for this type of setup, which can be found on our eCommerce website design in Tasmania page.

In summary...

Despite COVID-19's impact on businesses in Hobart and across Tasmania, the benefits of an eCommerce website and selling products online continue to be proven.

As with our core values here at Wakeford Digital, we are here to help and can come up with solutions to your budget or project requirements.

(We're also really happy to chat about payment options or discounts if you've experienced hardship due to Coronavirus or are in need to get selling online quickly).

If you've got any further questions, or any feedback, don't hesitate to contact Wakeford Digital today.

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