Electronic commerce is growing at a staggering pace as shopping goes digital. In 2021, the global retail e-commerce sales worldwide almost reached $5 bln. Over the next four years, it is expected to grow by 50%.
A quality website or app is the key element for an e-commerce business to hit the market successfully. To build one, you’d need an effective development team. Which specialists should you include? What is the best e-commerce team structure? How should such a team operate? Read this article to find the answers.
Benefits of outsourcing e-commerce software development
To begin with, let's make the focus of our article clear. The marketing team is of prime importance for the success of an online store. That’s why the search for an ideal e-commerce marketing team structure has become a popular topic.
However, in this article, we focus on the e-commerce software development team responsible for actually building an online store. Thus, when we mention an ‘e-commerce department structure,’ we mean the structure of a tech team.
While the marketing team usually operates in-house, outsourcing software development is a good idea. Here are the key benefits of such an approach.
Lower cost
If you don’t have an in-house development team with the required expertise, you’ll have to build it from scratch. Hiring, onboarding, and training new employees is a costly affair. You’ll also have to provide them with the necessary infrastructure. The outsourcing companies can do it much more efficiently due to the economy of scale and vast experience.
Moreover, the cost of software development services varies for different regions. In North America, the average software developers’ hourly rates vary from $49 to $210 depending on the experience, skill level, the technology stack, and the required commitment duration. In Central and Eastern Europe, for instance, the rates are much lower — $21 to $118.
Remote cooperation with top-level experts from all over the world allows outsourcing companies to offer quality solutions for a reasonable price. Such companies can efficiently work in distributed teams, coping with differences in time zones and cultures.
Unique expertise
Specialized software development companies accumulate vast experience in using niche technologies and working in specific domains. An outsourcing partner with unique and proven expertise can be of great help to you.
DigitalSuits has completed multiple e-commerce projects of varying scale and complexity. Shopify and BigCommerce development is our core domain, and we know all the ins and outs of these platforms. Also, we are familiar with the e-commerce business structure and processes. As a result, our projects have tighter timeframes and smaller budgets.
Dozens of satisfied clients and an extensive portfolio are solid evidence to support those claims. On top of it, our company is an official partner of Shopify, Recharge, and Klaviyo. Clutch recognized us as Top E-commerce Developers in 2020, which is another testimony to our expertise.
Access to a large talent pool
Finding a specialist with specific expertise and skills demands time and effort. Both depend on your requirements and on the size of the talent pool you have access to. If your project has tight deadlines, you don’t have much time to search high and low for extra human resources. In such a case, getting the right professional really quickly may be crucial.
Established outsourcing software development companies, such as DigitalSuits, tend to be strongly integrated into the IT communities. We partner with multiple recruitment agencies and other software development companies. Therefore, we have huge talent pools. As a result, we can augment their teams quickly and easily if required.
Flexibility
Outsourcing allows you to augment your team at any time. Hiring and accommodating a new in-house specialist can be a complex and time-consuming process. Getting in touch with the professionals from an outsourcing company is much easier. On top of it, there is no need to micromanage the work of a reliable software development company. For instance, our e-commerce team is self-sufficient and maintains the highest standards, doing its best to meet the deadlines.
Dealing swiftly and efficiently with the small projects
It isn’t feasible to hire new team members for niche, short-term projects. That is especially true if the job has to be done quickly. Outsourcing is a great way to solve the problem. Finding an appropriate partner to outsource such a project will take less time and effort than the recruitment process. A reliable software development company understands the importance of speed. We at DigitalSuits will get your project rolling in no time. Our experienced team sets goals and defines schedules really fast. All specialists work as one to ensure that the project kicks off as soon as possible.
How to choose a credible software development outsourcing company
As we’ve pointed out, outsourcing your online store development is a sensible strategy. Nonetheless, choosing among a myriad of companies that offer such services can be a challenge. Here are some basic steps to get you moving:
- Check reviews and rates. The starting point of your search should be to analyze the experience of others. Companies often publish some reviews on their websites, but those selections can hardly be considered unbiased. Also, be careful while browsing review platforms. Use reliable websites, providing verified rates and reviews for multiple clients. DigitalSuits has 4.9 stars on Clutch and 5.0 stars on GoodFirms.
- Look for companies with profound domain expertise. Those specializing in e-commerce software development should be at the top of your list. They have experience in coping with typical challenges and peculiarities of e-commerce solutions. As we’ve already mentioned, DigitalSuits focuses on Shopify and BigCommerce development. Therefore, we have a large experience in dealing with those platforms and know all their nuances.
- Review portfolios. Each company tries to prove it is your best choice. However, not all have extensive portfolios to showcase their experience and expertise. While reviewing the candidates, check out the projects they have worked on. Ideally, you will find the description project similar to yours. If not, you may ask about it directly. We at DigitalSuits love to share the Success Stories of our clients.
Now let’s proceed to the question of an ideal e-commerce team structure.
Which specialists do you need for an e-commerce project?
Building an online store from scratch requires a full-stack development team. Its size and composition may vary depending on the type of the project, its budget, and other factors. However, in any case, the project’s success demands the right specialists with the right expertise.
We at DigitalSuits have an independent e-commerce department focused on Shopify and BigCommerce development. It is a fully-fledged team covering all stages of the project, from gathering requirements to release. Here is the best e-commerce team structure diagram, based on our experience.
Project manager
A project manager coordinates the development process, keeping it on the right track. An e-commerce project manager is well aware of the best practices in e-commerce software development. Such specialists deal with the process of project estimation, planning, and execution. Their focus is on meeting the requirements, fitting the scope and budget as well as keeping up with the schedule. Project managers also communicate a project’s progress to stakeholders.
Tech lead
A tech lead is an experienced software engineer with profound expertise in domain-specific technologies. For instance, our tech leads are experts in Shopify or BigCommerce platforms. The role of such a team member is to find the best ways to leverage core technologies in a particular project. Tech leads are rather mentors than managers. A tech lead is interested in the success of a team as a whole. Such specialists code themselves, but it isn’t their primary responsibility. They perform code reviews as well as prioritize and delegate tasks. Tech leads share their expertise with other team members through interesting articles and even pair programming. Thus, they drive the technical expertise of the team up.
Business analyst
A business analyst has an especially important role in the initial stages of the project. Usually, it is a specialist with a profound background in the e-commerce domain who shapes the project’s vision. The role of this team member is to ensure that a final software product will have the expected business value. Business analysts serve as a bridge between stakeholders and the development team. To begin with, they help the clients to specify project requirements. Such specialists set up the primary product benchmarks and help to decide on basic KPIs. Then they ‘translate’ the requirements into tasks for developers. During the development process, BA keeps in touch with stakeholders and ensures that their feedback is taken into account.
Account manager
This person ensures reliable communication between the client and the outsourced e-commerce software development team. An account manager is the lead point of contact, instrumental in building and maintaining strong relationships between both parties. Such a specialist regularly communicates the progress of the project to external and internal stakeholders. Also, the account manager assists in dealing with challenging client requests or issues. We at DigitalSuits believe that such a specialist is the key to transparent and efficient cooperation. Therefore, each of our clients has a dedicated account manager.
E-commerce developers
E-commerce developers will transform your ideas and specifications into a real online store. They should have intricate knowledge of e-commerce platforms to swiftly create a high-quality product. Experienced developers know the best ways to design all essential parts of an e-store, such as various product pages, personal accounts, shopping cart systems, and more.
In our projects, we employ developers who specialize in Shopify or BigCommerce. Those two are among the most popular e-commerce development platforms. Both platforms offer multiple built-in options and provide ample room for customization.
Also, our team has full-stack developers who can build both the frontend and the backend of the online shopping solution using ReactJS and NodeJS, respectively. ReactJS is the most popular web framework among software developers. It makes JavaScript coding easier and faster, provides reusable components, and superb cross-platform support. NodeJS ensures swift code execution, efficient performance, and excellent scalability of the final solution.
UI/UX designer
In e-commerce, the website or mobile app is your storefront. Therefore, your site should be easy to use and look enticing to the customers. The core value should be vividly presented via design using language and symbols which appeal to the target audience.
The best e-commerce UI/UX designers are not only familiar with the e-commerce development platforms but know the ins and