The eCommerce industry in the USA has shown exponential growth in the past few years and the pandemic has further added to its essence. The previous year’s revenue from retail eCommerce in the US was USD 768 billion which is expected to reach USD 1.3 trillion by the end of 2025. So, if you are mapping out to launch an eCommerce website, these figures will certainly encourage you. But, there are also more than 1.8 million online retailers in the US and 7.1 million in the world. There are over 26 million eCommerce websites in the world. And, a large share of the market is ruled by marketplace sites like Amazon, Alibaba, and such. Don’t panic just yet! The intention behind signifying these figures is to prepare you for the type of competition you are going to enter. You need to create a website that can maintain its footing amidst such a crowd. For that, you need a technology stack that can serve you well in the short and long term. This post will offer valuable insights on technology stack for eCommerce development in the US to mark your presence.
What Makes an eCommerce Website Stand Out In the US Market?
This is the most elementary aspect that you must consider before proceeding with eCommerce development in the US. The success of an eCommerce website depends on its performance and visual appeal, and both aspects can be effectively covered by choosing the right tech stack for your project. An eCommerce website includes front-end and back-end development phases in which the former depicts how good your website looks and the latter deals with the overall performance. The kind of tech stack you choose for both the phases will majorly decide the level of success your eCommerce site will achieve.
Top Trending Technologies For Front-end eCommerce Development
Front-end refers to the look and feel of a website, i.e., whatever a user can see and everything that can entice him to shop through a particular eCommerce website. UI/UX designers work in collaboration to make sure that an eCommerce website looks great and appealing to visitors. The top three technologies that are widely used in the front-end development of an eCommerce website in the US are as follows.
JavaScript
This is the most widely used programming language among nearly 65% of worldwide web developers, whereas Python, SQL, and Java are among the top 5 programming languages used worldwide. Amidst all JavaScript technologies, Node.JS is the most widely popular JavaScript open-source framework on runtime environment that is much popular for its cost-effectiveness and facilitates developers to reuse their codes as and when required by the client-side.
HTML
In a Statista survey, more than 56% of global respondents reported using HTML/CSS as a programming language to develop their web pages. That’s because HTML makes it easier for developers to create SEO-compliant eCommerce websites that are easy to read and accessed by web crawlers. It also reduces the parsing time and the page loads faster, making your eCommerce website performance-oriented.
CSS
This is a highly popular language used to add style to HTML documents and is extremely helpful for digital marketing purposes. The language comes with more content than code formula and allows several innovations to a web page layout.
Back-end eCommerce Development Technologies
This is the lower but massive part of an iceberg that remains submerged. The backend is responsible for the performance of a website. It includes server-facing applications and languages used for your eCommerce website. This is where customization plays a vital role in offering a user-centric experience for visitors. Database, storage, and web server are the three major components of back-end development.
Key Areas To Build Your Tech Stack Around
eCommerce Platforms
This is where you will build your primary online store. Once you get a website host and a domain for it, you need to choose a suitable and fit-to-use eCommerce platform for your website. Here are some most popular eCommerce platforms used by most US-based online retailers.
BigCommerce
147953 websites around the world use BigCommerce. This eCommerce development platform comes with multiple benefits and has a global presence on most eCommerce websites. Besides its easy onboarding and setup process, the platform allows you to choose multiple themes or create your design. You can connect with umpteen buyers across different channels and accept payments in more than 100 currencies.
Shopify
Shopify accounts for 23% of the total market share in the US market. The best part of this eCommerce platform is that it makes an eCommerce website mobile-responsive. With the growing usage of smartphones in online shopping, Shopify can open a world of opportunities for your eCommerce website. It’s a highly secure platform that offers easy payment systems and management.
WooCommerce
Over 1.8 million websites in the US are currently using WooCommerce. It’s an open-source platform built on WordPress which is already used across the globe by millions of websites. With the free WordPress plugin, you get complete control over your website’s data and can make customizations in language, currencies, orders, and billing. Fast loading speed, SEO-friendliness, and all major advantages of a great CMS like WordPress come along with it.
For Order & Inventory Management
Skubana
It’s an effective cloud-based tool that allows brands and sellers to manage their inventory and orders with a multi-channel approach. Skubana helps you integrate eCommerce, wholesale, retail, marketplaces, and physical stores. You can eliminate overstocking with the help of this smart tool and automate operational responsibilities.
Inventory Planner
This is another highly efficient inventory planner tool that allows you to automate inventory management, forecast for peak seasons, and reduce eCommerce business costs to a great extent. You can easily enhance your supply chain operations and add multiple channels for your eCommerce website.
Order Desk
This tool offers a comprehensive dashboard where users get quick insights into order counts, revenue, and many more things. It is fully customizable where you can configure your workflows, folders, automation rules, receipt templates, etc.
Order & Payment Processing
You need to be very specific and careful while selecting a payment option for your eCommerce website as it’s a primary reason for cart abandonment. Online shoppers are very concerned about this aspect before they make a purchase. Here are some most trusted payment-processing tools that are widely used in eCommerce websites across the United States.
PayPal
There are 232 million accounts registered with this payment gateway and it accounts for 22% of the total online transactions made in the US. Over 87.5% of global online shoppers use PayPal to make online payments. It allows you to send, hold, and receive funds in 24 different currencies from 190 markets. Besides being a trusted name in online payment processing, PayPal offers several other benefits like high-level security, easy setup process, reasonable pricing policy, ease of execution, and the ability to accept international payments and cards.
Square
This is another great way to accept online payments from around the globe to reach global audiences. Square also allows you to keep your website’s subscription operational for international buyers and receive digital payments in the most secure and convenient way.
Stripe
A close competitor of PayPal, Stripe remains the second-most widely used payment gateway across the globe. It offers several enticing features to support easy, quick, and secure payment processing through eCommerce websites.
Fulfillment & Shipping
ShipBob
A reliable logistics partner that helps you have complete control of products, inventory, and shipping. It claims to deliver a 2-day shipping option along with several exciting features like distributed inventory centers, delivery tracking & management, fulfillment by Amazon, product warehousing, and many more.
Shipstation
This is also an effective & all-in-one sales management platform that allows you to save time and money with the vast support of importing data and you can manually add preferred carriers to your eCommerce website.
Customer Service & Support
Gorgias
This is an amazing tool to ensure that your online customers’ requests are duly addressed and that too, well in time. Its live chat help desk supports email integration, autoresponders, ticket management, customer history tracking, request assignment, and many more.
Simplr
It’s a renowned US-based customer service outsourcing agency that specializes in delivering AI-based solutions for online retailers to manage & expand their customer service capabilities. Its human-cloud network uses Artificial Intelligence to provide tips, product information, and other crucial guidelines for your online visitors.
Enterprise Resource Planning
NetSuite
NetSuite is the world’s leading provider of cloud-based business management technologies. The software perfectly allows you to focus on online selling with its data set. You can enhance external and internal communications and its automated platform for sales help build trust among online customers.
Oracle
Oracle is ranked as the second-largest software company in the world. Its ERP cloud-based solutions allow online retailers to manage revenue, accounts, procurement, risks, and order management with absolute ease. The easy accessibility makes it a fit choice to target online shoppers using different devices, including smartphones, laptops, desktops, and tablets.
Use Klaviyo for Marketing
Having a foolproof marketing strategy for your eCommerce website is an indispensable aspect of eCommerce development. Klaviyo is a reputed email CRM that allows you to target over 10000 Shopify stores using Klaviyo. It offers you next-level marketing capabilities with social media integration.
5 Tips On Choosing The Best Tech Stack
Follow these crucial tips before making a final decision on your eCommerce tech stack.
# Go Headless for Better Accessibility and Faster Development
# Avoid Excessive Use of Plugins to Maintain Fast Website Performance
# Build with Flexible Frameworks
# The Chosen Technologies Must Meet Your Business Requirements
# Be Innovative & Avoid Too Much Dependence on Tech Stacks
Over to You
Tech stacks are the building blocks of any website, and when it comes to entering a fiercely competitive eCommerce market like the US, you just can’t take risks.
But remember, the kind of ecomerce tech stack you choose for your website must comply with your unique business requirements. So, you must research your audience and then select some suitable technologies that can satiate their online shopping requirements.
