Drupal E-commerce Development: All You Need to Know

Drupal Commerce is an ecommerce platform that has become the talk of the town. Ecommerce giants including Puma, Timex, and Lush rely on it to ensure top-notch operation of their online stores. Such immense popularity of this ecommerce software piques the curiosity of many. If you are also one of them, this blog will satiate your curiosity by exploring multiple facets of Drupal ecommerce development that make it unmatchable. So, are you ready to dive in?

First of all, let’s delve into what Drupal Commerce is.

What is Drupal Commerce? 

Drupal Commerce is an open-source e-commerce software that enables business owners to create online stores and sell products and services. It is licensed under the General Public License (GNU). This implies that the public can use, modify, or distribute it freely without any licensing cost. It is world-renowned for delivering impeccable performance in labor-intensive and complex projects. As users get access to pre-built themes and modules, Drupal ecommerce development doesn’t require as much time and effort. All in all, Drupal Commerce is an all-in-one solution for the entire range of online business needs.

Now, let’s dig into the various features of Drupal Commerce that make it phenomenal.

The Top 5 Features of Drupal Commerce

Drupal Commerce is power-packed with exceptional features and functionalities. Here, we’ll discuss the 5 major ones. 

1. Flexibility

Every business is unique with its own needs, preferences, products, and target audience. Drupal understands that and hence, possesses enormous customization capabilities. You can freely decide the color, layout, theme, design, and everything else your digital store is composed of. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? 

2. Scalability 

As your business grows and expands, your website will experience an increase in traffic. If it fails to accommodate it, you are bound to suffer from a high bounce rate and losses. However, with its phenomenal scalability, Drupal ascertains that you don’t have to suffer any such consequences. Irrespective of whether you own a small business or a large business, Drupal can scale alongside your digital business growth and offer a flawless customer experience. 

3. Security

Cybersecurity is a big concern for digital stores as they gather sensitive customer data including card details, personal information, and purchase history. Cyber fraud can expose customers to financial losses, identity theft, emotional hurt, and legal issues. This can in turn lead to reputational loss for business organizations and push them on a downward spiral of destruction. 

Drupal is equipped with cutting-edge cybersecurity features including two-factor authentication, cross-site scripting protection, and cross-site request forgery protection. With these, you can make your ecommerce website cyber attack proof. 

4. Responsive design

Today, consumers have multitudinous mediums to access digital stores such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, and desktop computers. This has made it crucial for businesses to create sites compatible with all types of screen sizes. Drupal understands this and comes with a responsive design. It empowers your site with the incredible capability to fit into all types of screen sizes. Sounds great, doesn’t it? 

5. SEO-friendliness

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is indispensable for creating a strong online presence. It improves search engine visibility, enhances organic traffic, creates a phenomenal user experience, increases click-through rate, and provides a big competitive advantage. Drupal is power-packed with numerous modules that make search engine optimization a piece of cake. Pathauto, Metatag, Redirect, and XML Sitemap are some examples. 

What Makes Drupal Commerce Superior to Its Competitors

Drupal has three major competitors- WordPress, Shopify, and Magento. However, the fact that a majority of business organizations prefer Drupal development services over others indicates that Drupal does have something special. If you are curious to know what gives this CMS an edge over its competitors, this section is for you.

Drupal Commerce vs. WordPress

WordPress renders ecommerce functionality through its fabulous plugin - WooCommerce. It possesses a user-friendly and intuitive interface that attracts businesses worldwide. However, WordPress often lags behind Drupal in terms of security, supporting large and complex websites, customization, scalability, multilingual capabilities, and community support. 

Drupal Commerce vs. Shopify

Shopify is an ecommerce platform with an intuitive setup. It also empowers websites to handle high-traffic and high-volume sales seamlessly without any worries in terms of server management or technical disturbances. No doubt, Shopify is an incredible platform, but Drupal still takes the lead when it comes to customization, community-driven environment, scalability, third-party integrations, security control, and community and developer resources. 

Drupal Commerce vs. Magento

Magento is famous for its robust features and enterprise-level functioning. It is great for creating digital stores with complex product catalogs and order management requirements. However, Drupal’s enormous customization capabilities, phenomenal security features, exceptional SEO suite, cost-effectiveness, and highly active community give it a competitive edge over Magento. After all, if a platform supports complex product catalogs but doesn’t offer exceptional cybersecurity, it is of no use. 

Are you feeling motivated to leverage the power of Drupal ecommerce development to build your digital store? If the answer is yes, the following 5-step process will assist you with it.

The 5-Step Process for Building an ECommerce Website with Drupal

Define your goals and identify your target audience

First and foremost, it is important to focus on your goals and target audience. What do you intend to achieve through your ecommerce store? What is your ideal client and how can you reach them? What do the statistics say about your target market? It is only when you figure out the answers to these questions that you can proceed further with the process. Once you have all the answers with you, you can choose the appropriate modules and extensions to captivate the hearts of your customers. 

Afterward, you can select product categories and catalogs to represent your offerings in an eye-catching manner. Once you do that, you can proceed with designing your site. Ensure to opt for secure and convenient payment gateways such as PayPal, Apple Pay, and Visa. 

Customize and extend your digital store

Your business is unique with its own values, ethics, preferences, and products. It deserves a website that reflects its true identity. This calls for customization of its look with eye-catching Drupal themes. There are more than 250 options for you to choose from. Depending on your preferences, you can also customize the color, typography, and layout of your business website. 

Whether your website requires social media integration, advanced search capabilities, or effective customer relationship management, Drupal can provide you with everything. You can also send personalized product recommendations to your customers and tap into the power of their reviews and ratings to promote customer trust. 

Work on products, order, and inventory management

At this step, you need to add and manage products. For this, you can utilize various product attributes of Drupal Commerce including images, pricing, and description. Once you organize the products into different categories, do not forget to apply tags to promote effortless navigation for the visitors. Further, you can also track the quantities of products, set minimum and maximum limits for stock levels, and set up notifications for critical inventory levels. 

Optimization of user experience and conversion rates

User experience plays a pivotal role in determining the reputation, growth, and success of your business website. A clear and well-defined site structure is imperative for creating a phenomenal user experience and ensuring that visitors can effortlessly find what they seek. So, do not forget to create a well-organized website structure. Then, you can customize the navigation menus and search functionalities. Additionally, focus on optimizing images, responsiveness across various devices, and quick loading times. 

Tap into the power of marketing and promotions

Marketing and promotions are integral for enhancing brand awareness, driving growth, and accomplishing long-term success. According to research, approximately 50% of people make purchases from marketing emails once a month. This indicates the popularity of email marketing and calls for you to establish a strategy for the same. 

By tapping into customer data, you can deliver personalized product recommendations and targeted messages to your valuable customers. When they engage with meaningful content, they are more likely to respond to the call to action. Besides, you can also leverage the power of social media marketing and influencer marketing to take your business on an upward spiral of growth. 

Let’s Wrap Up

Drupal Commerce is an incredible ecommerce platform with phenomenal features including cutting-edge security, enormous customization capabilities, and responsive design. With all these fabulous features, it has outperformed its competitors and established itself as the most preferred ecommerce solution. If you feel motivated to leverage the power of Drupal ecommerce development for your digital store, the above-mentioned steps can be of great help to you. 

In case you find yourself stuck at any point, you can contact LN Webworks - a reputed Drupal development company. Our highly experienced team of developers renders unparalleled Drupal development services and helps clients build a highly profitable ecommerce website without fail.