software Archives - The App Solutions

How to make EHR/EMR Epic Integration with Your Health App

Posted on August 28, 2023September 25, 2023 by Pavel Tantsiura

Content:

What does Epic software mean?
What is EHR/EMR integration?
Does Epic have an API?
How to Integrate Epic EHR/EMR?
The Benefits of Integrating Epic
Who Needs Epic EHR/EMR Integration?
Who doesn’t Need Epic EHR/EMR Integration?
Want To Build a Healthcare Mobile App?

The medical field in the United States was one of the first to be affected by universal digitalization, which had a positive effect on patient treatment. However, perfection knows no limits, and ordering medical records is the first step to a “bright future,” which is impossible without technology development.

Please dive deep into our Podcast with Jeff Fried, Director of Product Management at InterSystems. You can gather insights about EHR integration like Epic with the use of InterSystems technology.

The APP Solutions is a long-standing InterSystems partner, and we use InterSystems technology to integrate with 99% of EHR systems within the US. This is the quickest and most affordable way to solve all your interoperability challenges.

Integrate my Software with EPIC

What does Epic Software Mean?

Epic Software is an application created to help doctors and other healthcare professionals (insurance agents, pharmacists) effectively manage electronic medical records and track any information that is in any way related to a patient’s health. Such software helps access data much more quickly, not prescribing unnecessary tests or drugs that can cause side effects, etc. Epic software helps to significantly improve business processes.

According to statistics, in 2022, Epic named top EHR 12th straight year in nomination “Best overall software suite”. Isn’t that compelling enough reason to incorporate the system into your application?

What is EHR/EMR Integration?

EHR (electronic health records software) and EMR (electronic medical records) are medical records systems. Despite the similarity of concepts, they still have a defining difference that affects the degree of compatibility due to the amount of information. EMR contains data maintained by one doctor or group of doctors from one medical institution; as soon as you go to another hospital, you need to start all over again.

The EHR absolutely systematizes all info from any medical personnel that has ever been entered into the system. Any doctor anywhere in the country can view the current data or send it to colleagues when needed.

KEY DIFFERENCES IN EHR VS. EMR VS. PHR: WHAT TO CHOOSE FOR YOUR HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION

EMR/EHR epic integration simplifies the life of medical staff and patients, allowing them to download the entire medical history of a person in seconds, and saves time on various burdensome but necessary formalities such as filling out personal and insurance information.

HL7 INTEGRATION: A REFERENCE FOR ITS BENEFITS, IMPLEMENTATIONS, AND APPLICATIONS

Does Epic have an API?

You can integrate your software with EHR (which we have found will give your product a huge advantage) in several ways:

HL7 (Health Level Seven) – a set of international standards that issue recommendations for the transfer and exchange of data between medical institutions and other healthcare providers
FHIR API (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) – preferably for iOS
Middleware
Personal EHR integration modules created by your developers

Looking to seamlessly integrate your medical app with EHR/EMR like Epic? Don't let integration headaches slow you down – reach out to us

CASE STUDY

A White-Label Telemedicine Platform – organizing data transmission in FHIR HL7 standard for health care data exchange using FHIR HL7 infrastructure

OTHER CASE STUDIES:

Calmerry Online Therapy Platform

Orb Health – Сare Management As A Virtual Service

BuenoPR – 360° Approach to Health

But Epic is the most optimal because interoperability is easier to achieve using EHR solution providers’ public or open API. And the exchange of data between Epic EHR and your product takes place using the Epic API.

API is an application programming interface, a set of rules for working with data. With its help, you can understand how to retrieve info and send it back in each case. It acts as a kind of intermediary between the application and the EHR/EMR system.

Upon receiving a specific request, the API relays it to the system. It then receives, processes, and issues a response containing all the necessary information about the patient in a unified approved format USCDI (The U.S. Core Data for Interoperability).

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE ON MOBILE APP HIPAA COMPLIANCE

This standardization is part of the Affordable Care Act. It allows the creation of a homogeneous data set so that information does not get confused, and any doctor can quickly and easily figure it out.

***

Want to learn more about EHR integration? Watch our podcast with the expert Jeff Fried, Director of Product Management at InterSystems.

PODCAST #3. HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP IMPROVE HEALTHCARE OUTCOMES

I need help to integrate my Platform or Device with Epic

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How to Integrate Your Health App with Epic EMR/EHR Systems?

First, think about the server where your application is stored. Next, check the compatibility of the sites from which you are going to collect information. Make sure the EHR/EMR supports these sites.

FHIR STANDARD: THE CRUCIAL HEALTHCARE DATA SOLUTION FOR SECURE INTEROPERABILITY

The next step is to create an account at Uscdi.epic.com, which we mentioned earlier. This is required to access the API key. Confirm your identity; it is important to protect data transmitted encrypted via the SSL protocol.

Check if the API will have the necessary endpoints so that, at some point, your application does not stop receiving data from the system. Check everything from medical history to allergy markers. You will see the API key on the website, which is best tested to see if all endpoints are working as expected.

Include API calls in your application code using endpoints. After everything is implemented and tested, you can take advantage of the Epic EHR/EMR integration.

How To Make A Medical App: The Ultimate Guide

The Benefits of Integration EHR/EMR

Among other preferences, we wanted to emphasize again:

Quick access to any medical institution. Doctors don’t always have the opportunity to see a patient in their office; sometimes, they have to go out and work with no computer with available data. The implementation of Epic EHR allows viewing everything from a smartphone. With Epic, healthcare providers exchange more than 200 million records each month.
Cost optimization. The Epic API is easier to integrate than HL7 or CCD. In the latter case, the developer must write a lot on his own; this significantly affects the project’s cost. Whereas Epic syncs with EHR/EMR for free.
Scalability. With Epic’s electronic health record integration, you can easily resize your database. It is helpful for medical organizations such as intensive care units, where patients are under constant supervision, resulting in many entries.

KEEP A PULSE ON EPIC APP ORCHARD AND HOW IT BENEFITS THE HEALTH SYSTEMS

Who Needs Epic EMR/EHR Integration?

In addition to the above cases, the Epic USCDI API is the best fit for applications focused on remote patient treatment. For example, telemedicine. The patient does not need to collect all of his data from different clinics to forward it to the appropriate specialist. The doctor will find where to get them.

Epic EHR/EMR integration is also suitable for patient management, which tracks and controls treatment plans. When a patient’s medical history is reviewed, the app retrieves baseline and current clinical data (drug status and test results) and tracks changes.

Source

THE APP SOLUTIONS – CUSTOM HEALTHCARE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

Which Healthcare Organizations don’t Need Epic EHR/EMR Integration?

Note: if your software requires more than just retrieving data, you need to consider other APIs, because Epic only allows you to view the data, not make edits! Thus, if the attending physician is going to add new or correct existing information, remember about HL7, FHIR API, etc.

Epic is also not suitable if you need data synchronization or extensive analytical data (as a rule, there will be no overload with data on one patient). Also, Epic is not suitable for patient-oriented applications, as the information stored in the EHR/EMR is primarily for physicians.

How To Create a Healthcare Mobile Application

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Femtech in Healthcare: How to make it effective

Posted on August 28, 2023September 20, 2023 by Pavel Tantsiura

In this issue:

What is the Meaning of FemTech?
The FemTech Revolution
Why Should Femtech Companies Protect Data?
The Future of FemTech and Women’s Health in General
Why is FemTech important?
Conclusions

As we move forward, the Western world’s medicine becomes more specialized and narrowly focused, adapting to the personal needs of almost every patient. Such an ambitious goal requires new and more advanced technologies.

What is the Meaning of FemTech?

For example, FemTech is responsible for meeting women’s healthcare needs. This term is not new: it appeared back in 2016 when Ida Tin, the CEO of the period-tracking app Clue, came up with the idea of marking the trend of a surge in FemTech startups that provide services at the intersection of technology and women’s health.

Essentially, FemTech is about solving health and other biological needs through technology.

However, FemTech has begun to gain popularity now. The term falls under the categories of:

Products
Services
Software
Apps

HOW TO INTEGRATE YOUR HEALTH APP WITH EPIC EHR/EMR

The only condition is that they specialize in women’s health (reproductive, menstrual, sexual, pelvic floor, vaginal, oncological, bone, brain, autoimmune, heart, mental health, and even migraines). Recently, FemTech has been looked at even more broadly – as a specialization in any factor that somehow improves a woman’s life.

For example, gender has come to be recognized as a social determinant of mental health in the United States since it is widely known that women suffer from depression about twice as much as men. Physiological diseases also affect women in 80 or even 90% of cases. Also, illnesses that occur differently in women than in men (like osteoporosis). We can discuss specialized care specifically for women’s health in such cases.

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE ON MOBILE APP HIPAA COMPLIANCE

FemTech companies deal with solutions specifically designed to address women’s health issues, not just products that have been rebranded or repositioned. These may include:

Wearable tracking devices (bracelets, rings, patches, etc.)
Any solutions related to artificial intelligence
Applications and non-invasive equipment

The FemTech Revolution

The surge in FemTech popularity coincided with COVID-19. At that time, both patients and medical institutions themselves were forced to get to grips with digital technologies, even if they had previously made do only with offline services.

According to a study by Medi-Tech Insights, in December 2021, the global femtechnology market was estimated at $22 billion. Over the next five years it will grow by 15%. And a new Global Market Insights research report predicts that the FemTech market value will exceed $48.5 billion by 2025 and $65 billion by 2027. Statista shows even more blushing investment expectations:

Why Should Femtech Companies Protect Data?

It’s very important to keep data confidential when developing any FemTech solution. Health data is a sensitive topic in itself. But what if a woman’s personal data about her menstrual cycle, sexual activity, contraception, or even abortion were hacked? Such data could be used by states where abortion is illegal to hold a woman legally responsible.

HEALTHCARE CYBERSECURITY: HOW TO PROTECT PATIENT DATA

Note that this is not just a matter of software or app technology vulnerability, but also a breach of the privacy policy. So, the first thing FemTech companies should do is inform users what data they plan to collect and what they intend to do with it.

The Future of FemTech and Women’s Health in General

The increasing spread of chronic diseases and the growing prevalence of unhealthy lifestyles and diets will increase the burden of disease, thus contributing to the growth of the FemTech industry. In addition, the increasing prevalence of infectious diseases among women in low-income countries due to unsanitary conditions will stimulate business growth.

KEY DIFFERENCES IN EHR VS. EMR VS. PHR: WHAT TO CHOOSE FOR YOUR HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION

Distribution of FemTech companies worldwide in 2022:

It’s not unusual for first-world countries to be on the front lines of general health conditions. But it’s not all bad for other continents, either.

The market outlook for FemTech looks promising. Currently, most FemTech companies are focused on fertility, pregnancy, and maternal health, however that scenario should change in the next 5 to 10 years. New and prospective areas such as longevity, menopause, sex technology, and breastfeeding are expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

CASE STUDIES:

Calmerry Online Therapy Platform

Orb Health – Сare Management As A Virtual Service

BuenoPR – 360° Approach to Health

Why is FemTech Important?

Right now, the world’s population is 8 billion people. About 3.9 billion of them are women. Isn’t such a huge target audience the most obvious fact that proves we need specialized women’s health solutions? Unfortunately, not every woman on the planet has access to femtechnologies. Therefore, this may be an additional incentive to develop your FemTech products in the direction of those the digitalization process has not yet reached.

How To Make A Medical App: The Ultimate Guide

Promoting FemTech health services:

Improves healthcare delivery (e.g., through online appointments, remote surgeries, etc.)
Enables better monitoring of one’s health (tracking of various indicators in the body will immediately signal to the woman when something is wrong, which means she will seek help faster)
Reduces the problem of gender inequality in technology (it gives an additional opportunity for female engineers and scientists to prove themselves)
Solves the stigmatized problems (women no longer have to hide their physiological issues from men, which also allows them to solve problems faster if they arise)
Provides culturally sensitive and individualized solutions to more women (LGBT community, black population, low-income segments of society)

Conclusions

Even though women make up half the global population, and despite the estimated $500 billion annual medical expenses attributed to women, only 4% of all healthcare research and development is targeted at women’s health issues specifically, according to PitchBook.

Perhaps your product can be a go-to tool for a particular group of women from whom you can derive income and the moral satisfaction of grateful feedback.

THE APP SOLUTIONS – CUSTOM HEALTHCARE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

If you have some idea or project with a FemTech focus that you would like to pursue, we can help with that. The APP Solutions has significant expertise in healthcare services. This means we can not only implement the project, but also bring it to perfection. We are always aimed at long-term, mutually convenient cooperation in making your product unique and in demand.

Want To Build a Healthcare Mobile App?

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PODCAST #3. How Technology Can Help Improve Healthcare Outcomes

Posted on August 28, 2023September 20, 2023 by Pavel Tantsiura

The guest of this episode was Nick McKenzie, Group Product Manager at Redox, an orchestra conductor who always finds common ground with investors, techies, and marketers alike to create an amazing workable product: “I just naturally gravitate toward solving hard problems with large folks of smart people and still try to do that.” Nick began multitasking in college, playing sports, editing the school newspaper, studying economics and political science to become a great lawyer, and eventually realizing he wanted to combine healthcare with technology.

Embrace Action and Market Feedback

That led him to Walgreens, and it was an opportunity to see the interplay between the commercial and human aspects of healthcare delivery.

AGILE HEALTHCARE: HOW TO IMPLEMENT THE APPROACH

“I operate under the idea that it’s better to release something from a product and have to tweak it than to over-design and never get feedback on a thing. So I am generally biased toward action and implementing feedback, and sharing decision-making along those lines in a reasonably fast time frame.”

WATCH ALSO:

PODCAST #1. CREATING A FUTURISTIC SURGICAL ROBOT

PODCAST #2. DISRUPTING HEALTHCARE SERVICES

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: THE APP SOLUTIONS TIPS

Nick is a person who doesn’t get hung up on things for long but tries to make MVPs, tests, and upgrades according to what the market dictates.

From App Knowledge to EHR Integration Architecture

The next step in his career was working at the famous company Cerner. Nick says the following about his work there: “You learn your app, and then you become the solution architect of that app. So you gain more knowledge than the subject matter expert of that given application. That was my intended path, and my path was exposed to 16 or 17 of Cerner’s applications in my first year.”

Nick went on to work with the EHR integration architecture, which he compares to building a house, where an entire team of contractors, roofers, electricians, and plumbers work cohesively under an architect.

“I was always fascinated with this idea of being the translator helping clinicians translate their requirements into what they wanted the system to be designed and then translating back to the technical teams how to execute and interestingly enough. It’s all that product management really is.”

THE HEALTHCARE ECOSYSTEMS: A TOUR THROUGH THE HEALTH-INTERCONNECTED WORLD

Simplifying Healthcare Data with a Personal Touch

The next step in Nick’s career was Redox – a single API for providers and products. Mission – making the world’s healthcare data frictionless for adoption. The mantra for every large team meeting is that we are all patients. We might not be patients today, but at some point, all of us will become. What is Redox doing now? Expanding buyer personas, changing the focus on the product.

There was also talk about how Nick sees the difference between a startup with 250 people in series D and a Fortune 500 company with 25,000 people. It’s the mechanics of running a business, like HR management, annual reviews, and culture… These things are handled more centrally in a big company, and they’re very personal at Redox. You have a much deeper ability to influence people directly. Nick explains in quite some detail and fascinatingly what he thinks the difference is between product development and the KPI system at a big company and a not-so-big one.

How to build the right product team? Focus on a diversity of skills to avoid tunnel vision. You need people who can offer different solutions to problems so that you can gather the best of those perspectives and assemble them into a workable strategy for the future.

HOW TO MAKE EHR/EMR EPIC INTEGRATION WITH YOUR HEALTH APP

The Multifaceted Chameleon Approach

“Product is a complex field. You have to understand the dynamics of the business; you have to work directly with engineers, and you have to interact with customers. You kind of play different roles.”

Product management as a professional discipline that attracts people who used to write code, do business, and do architecture. Nick thinks of product management as a chameleon. Some days you have to be blue and interact with investors and customers; other days, you have to be green head down and solve engineering team problems; and some days, you have to be a completely different color in market research, interviewing people, and doing podcasts. And it’s all proportionate based on business needs.

Nick talked about interoperability in healthcare and where it’s headed. We spent the last 10 to 15 years digitizing the U.S., but the problem was they were in different systems that spoke different languages. Now we’re in the throes of unifying into just one language. And we have to get to the point where we can universally translate from one language to another language to provide computational algorithms to provide new clinical therapies.

TOP 10 HEALTHCARE TRENDS EXPECTED TO BE IN 2023

***

The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.

Who is a successful product manager in the healthcare domain? Which skills and qualities are crucial? How important is this role in moving a successful business to new achievements? Responsibilities and KPIs?

Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels –

Spotify: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/abvcQJFW3tb

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL9CfKy5ZqM

PODCAST #4. Boost Business with Iteration: Quicker Time to Market, Better Product

Posted on August 28, 2023September 20, 2023 by Pavel Tantsiura

This week our guest is Patrick Cullen, SVP of Engineering at Carrot Fertility – not only an IT expert but a three-time Ironman Triathlon accomplisher! College was also a bit of an obstacle course, as Pat chose to study computer science and business administration, which is not easy to combine when you’re still very young and a member of the track and field team. However, that’s where Cullen learned how to work as a team – how to take responsibility and delegate it to others.

Pat’s Journey: Balancing Innovation and Scalability

After Pat’s studies, he quickly worked his way up from Help Desk to chief software engineer at CommerceHub, keeping his love of sports in mind and founding Hoopdog. This startup organized amateur basketball tournaments.

WATCH ALSO:

PODCAST #1. CREATING A FUTURISTIC SURGICAL ROBOT

PODCAST #2. DISRUPTING HEALTHCARE SERVICES

PODCAST #3. HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP IMPROVE HEALTHCARE OUTCOMES

Working at Carrot Fertility is, first and foremost, about the satisfaction of giving hope and helping families who can’t have children. That in itself is a good motivation. Then, by improving the quality of the product, Pat builds iterations based on user feedback – some teams focus on innovation, and some reinforce what we’ve already done. So 60% is scalability and risk reduction, and 40% is innovation.

“It’s an art, but it’s so complex that I feel like when science has so many variables, then we just call it art.”

Analytics numbers should guide you at any stage of product creation but be prepared that not everything can be confirmed by numbers at once – letting go of the right things at the right time. The perfect product is the enemy of a good product – don’t hesitate to “let out the door” something that doesn’t seem to meet your criteria.

TOP 10 HEALTHCARE TRENDS EXPECTED TO BE IN 2023

Solving Complex Problems and Advancing Healthcare Ecosystems

“There’s something fun to solve whether it’s more like the market fit or architecturally complex; I love all problems like I love all my children equally.”

THE HEALTHCARE ECOSYSTEMS: A TOUR THROUGH THE HEALTH-INTERCONNECTED WORLD

What does Carrot plan to do next? Investing in the modularity to ensure ease of adoption for companies and health plans; continuing to invest in our data platform to increase visibility in outcomes of journeys; investing in various fertility journeys for improved engagement.

“I am a solver at heart, so I love hearing about a gnarly problem that I can roll my sleeves up and get involved with.”

Shape Product Understanding and Success

Every experience of your career and your journey is something that you can build on and learn from, so always embrace where you are and live in the present because it will help influence your future in terms of product understanding the life cycle and phases of your products and what their place is in that and invest accordingly, whether it’s early innovation or something that you need to start mastering.

FEMTECH IN HEALTHCARE: HOW TO MAKE IT EFFECTIVE

***

The APP Solutions launched a podcast, CareMinds, where you can hear from respected experts in healthcare and Health Tech.

Please find out about all this and more in our podcast. Stay tuned for updates and subscribe to channels –

Spotify: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/abvcQJFW3tb

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL9CfKy5ZqM

How to build an ecommerce website and make is successful: a step-by-step guide

Posted on August 28, 2023September 20, 2023 by Pavel Tantsiura

In this issue:

How to build an online store in 5 steps
Step 1. Choose a business model
Step 2. Find a platform
Step 3. Add UI/UX e-commerce design
Step 4. Add products
Step 5. Integrate an online payment gateway
How much does it cost to develop an e-commerce website
Developing an e-commerce website: final thought

E-commerce website development is similar to building a house. How many people will live there? How many rooms, bathrooms, and floors does the house need? Maybe you want a swimming pool in your yard? All these decisions will impact the final project’s total cost and time required to finish it.

The same applies to e-commerce website development. In this case, much depends on your business model, the number and type of products you are going to sell, your budget, and other factors.

Therefore, if you’re considering establishing an online presence for your existing offline business, or launching a new business online, you need to clarify all the details and be aware of how to develop an e-commerce website.

In this article, we’ll guide you through the main steps of creating an e-commerce website, core technologies, and online store development costs. This information will help you evaluate your online store’s requirements, shape the project’s vision, estimate your budget, and be on the same page with your e-commerce development team.

How to build an online store in 5 steps

Below, you will find more details on how to create an e-commerce website, essential steps to building an e-commerce website, and factors that will impact your decisions along the process.

Step 1. Choose a business model

Your business model and monetization strategy will impact your requirements for an e-commerce platform, its functionality, and payment tools. Let’s discover e-commerce business models which are popular among online retailers.

If you have stock inventory, whether produced by a supplier or made by you, you will apply this classic e-commerce business model. It includes selling your products online and receiving money from customers directly to your bank account. With such a model, you can control the quantity and quality of your stock and ensure timely delivery while building brand awareness among your customers. At the same time, you will also be responsible for purchasing goods, fulfilling orders, shipment, and other management tasks.

If you don’t have stock inventory, you can still receive money from your online store. For operating an e-commerce website without stock, you can choose among the following business models:

Dropshipping website

Dropshipping is a tactic when you list products from other suppliers on your website’s catalog. Once a customer places an order via your website, you send this order to your supplier who will pack and send ordered products to your buyer. In this case, you perform as a middle man between buyers and suppliers.

For such services, you can charge a service commission added to the products’ total cost. The advantage of dropshipping is that you don’t spend money on inventory or warehouse. You are also not responsible for packaging orders and shipments.

The disadvantage is that you cannot build your own brand awareness selling products of other suppliers. Besides this, not all suppliers sell high-quality products. Thus, you need to double-check all your suppliers to ensure they sell high-quality products and pack all products responsibly.

Marketplace development

Operating an e-commerce marketplace means you attract sellers to your website who list their products, find buyers, fulfill orders, and receive money via your website. A well-known example of a marketplace is Amazon.

As a marketplace owner, you can apply a bunch of monetization strategies, including:

Product listing fees, when you charge buyers for placing their products on your marketplace.

Premium seller profile. Sellers pay fees to receive an option to list more products on your website.

Paid promotions mean promoting particular products and placing them on the top of the search in this category.

Service fees added to the product cost listed on your website.

Payment fees are charged when a buyer pays for order via your website’s payment gateway.

Ads. You charge other companies for running their cost-per-click, cost-per-mile, or cost-per-lead banner campaigns.

Step 2. Find a platform

Your e-commerce project complexity and size will define your e-commerce platform. Now, let’s check the essential e-commerce platforms for building small, medium, and big online stores, operating costs, and pros and cons.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is not an actual platform but an e-commerce plugin for WordPress websites. WordPress is a CMS (content management system) that allows you to create a website, add to it, and manage its content. However, by using the WooCommerce plugin you can still set up and run a basic e-commerce website. Such an online store will have a product catalog, shopping cart, and payment gateway.

WooCommerce is a perfect choice for running small to medium-sized online stores. Despite the fact that there are even addons that can turn your website into a marketplace, we suggest using a more robust e-commerce platform for such a business model.

Pros

The best thing about WooCommerce is that it is open source. It means you do not need to pay fees for installing it on your WordPress website. WooCommerce also has free addons and pre-designed templates. But, to make your online store more personalized, you can buy one paid WooCommerce design from Templatemonster or ThemeForest.

Cons

For setting up and running the WooCommerce website, you will need help from developers, unless you have experience with web development and coding. WooCommerce online store development requires buying a domain name, buying and integrating hosting and LLS certificate for secured connection, plugins for wishlists, email marketing, and more advanced user analytics. Even setting a design template will be challenging for non-tech persons. Thus, despite WooCommerce being free, consider additional expenses for initial online store settings.

Shopify

Shopify is a SaaS e-commerce platform. This means you receive a pre-built e-commerce website for a monthly subscription. Shopify subscription tiers start from $29 per month for Basic Shopify. At this price you will receive all the necessary functionality for your online retail business:

Unlimited product catalog
24/7 customer support
Built-in payment gateway
Abandoned cart recovery
Two staff account of you and your online store manager
Manual orders creation

And other features.

However, to empower your e-commerce website with advanced reporting tools, third-party calculated shipping rates, more staff accounts, or inventory locations, you need to upgrade to Shopify ($79/month), or Advanced Shopify ($299/month).

Pros

With a monthly subscription, you will receive a pre-build solution with free SSL, a built-in blog, ready for use. As a user, you need to choose your domain name, add your products, choose the design template, give your bank account details, and that’s all. You are ready to sell products online.

Besides this, Shopify works excellent for the dropshipping business model. Using add-ons, you can integrate your shop with Oberlo, Spocket, or Aliexpress, and list products from suppliers in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Asia, Australia, Brazil, and your catalog.

Cons

Shopify has its own payment gateway called Shopify Payments. If you want to leverage another payment gateway, like PayPal, you must pay additional payment fees, 2%, 1%, or 0.5%, depending on your Shopify plan.

The platform offers only nine free design templates. Thus, to develop an online store that suits your brand identity, you need to buy a paid design. Most of the advanced e-commerce plugins to optimize your online sales must also be paid for. To integrate online chat, social media sharing, pop-ups, or a mobile app version of your online store, expect to pay additional costs from $10/month per plugin.

Magento

Magento is an excellent platform if you’re considering developing a marketplace, medium, or large-sized online store. The platform has several plans. The Magento CE (Community) version is open-source, so no additional payment is required. This Magento version has an open-source library of online store components your developers can add anytime you need new Magento functionality. Besides this, the free Magento version does not have any technical support. On the other hand, you cannot use it without experience in coding or a web development team.

Magento also has two paid tiers – Magento EE (Enterprise) from $22,000 per year, and Magento EE Cloud from $2000 per year.

Pros

Magento is a powerful e-commerce platform that allows you to scale your business from 100 to 10,000 products and handle huge traffic loads without downtime. Besides this, Magento is the perfect option for implementing drop shipping or building a marketplace. Since this platform is trendy, you can easily find and hire a Magento development team for building an e-commerce website.

Cons

If you expect to spend up to $10,000 on setting up an e-commerce website, you should look for another option, because setting up and running even a free Magento version is expensive. Let’s make some calculations. You need to spend

from $100 to $250 per month on hosting
from $29 to $499 on the design template
and from $50 on buying pre-built Magento modules

Besides this, also include the Magento developers’ hourly rate that can be anywhere from $50 to $250 per hour.

Custom

[Custom marketplace layout by The APP Solutions]

If none of the previous options meet your business needs, consider custom ecommerce website development. In this case, you will need to find a web development team, experienced in PHP, HTPM, Angular, and other technologies. The team should also have custom online store development projects in their portfolio. If required, the team will also build a mobile application of your online store for iOS, or Android platforms,

Pros

When developing a custom online store you receive total control over the design, customer journey, feature list, and integrations with your existing ecosystem. You also receive a custom-build design that matches your brand identity, customers’ needs, and unlimited third-party integrations. In this way, you will provide your customers with a unique shopping experience and provoke the “WOW” effect.

Cons

The development of an online store from scratch requires both time and money. Thus, expect to pay for custom e-commerce design from $10,000 and $40, 000 on development.

How long does it take to build a custom e-commerce website? In our experience, such projects require 4 to 5 months. This timeframe covers all stages of e-commerce website development. from writing technical documentation. to testing and bug fixing of all functionality.

Download free eBook on eCommerce app development

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Step 3. Add UI/UX e-commerce design

Whether you are going to use a free design template, pay for one, or develop an e-commerce design from scratch, you need to keep in mind the main elements of modern e-commerce design that will be convenient for your shoppers. Here are some of them:

White space

The era of over-designed online stores disappeared ten years ago. Nowadays, online shoppers expect to use online stores with a clear and concise design. Such a design looks cleaner and does not discharge shoppers from your products.

[Whitespace in Trendeo Home Page, developed by The APP Solutions]

Product categories

To help shoppers navigate easily on your e-commerce website, you should group products into categories and subcategories. Label each type with a single word that describes this range of products so your shoppers can scan them and understand what products they will find in one or other group.

E-commerce search and filters

If your customers can’t find what they want, they will leave your online store. Therefore, you need to help your customers find the products they are looking for within seconds. The most popular option is a keyword search. Also, consider integrating search filters to narrow down search results by size, color, style, price, and other definitions.

Apart from using standard keyword searches, you can integrate AI e-commerce tools with image recognition and allow shoppers to find products by images.

[Search filters on Trendeo website, developed by the The APP Solutions]

High-quality images with zoom

The main difference between online and offline shopping is that you cannot touch the products you are wanting to buy. Thus, high-resolution photos are essential to show customers all the details of your products. Moreover, consider using addons that allow shoppers to zoom images to show them exactly what they are buying. We suggest using product images with a white background which helps the product stand out, and also works with almost any style or color scheme.

[Product image on Trendeo website, developed by The APP Solutions]

Product description and sizes

The product description should inform your customers about which materials the product is made of, its variations, sizes, and other details. You can also put a table of correspondence between clothing sizes and their values/measurements in inches or centimeters.

Step 4. Add products

Now it is time to add products to your catalog. If you have up to 100 items to add, you can do this manually. Thus, in the Admin panel, you need to fill in such product details, as:

Product name
Category belongs to
Product variations (color, size)
Price
Description
Photo
Product delivery fee
Product images
Tags

And other information your e-commerce platform will require.

In the case of having more than 100 products, you can prepare a CSV file with product details and then import it into your online store via the Admin panel.

Each e-commerce platform has its own setting and number of required fields for automated product import. Therefore, to import all your products successfully, check out your platform’s Help center.

For example, here are the steps required to import a CSV file to the Shopify store.

At this stage, also consider that your CSV file may include only text. Thus, you need to upload all product images to your server beforehand. Once all photos are uploaded, you need to add all image URLs to products in the CSV file.

Step 5. Integrate an online payment gateway

Unless you are going to use the Shopify payment gateway, you need to integrate a payment gateway into your online store.

We suggest the following trusted payment gateways for simple online stores, dropshipping websites, and two-sided marketplaces:

PayPal. This payment gateway accepts payments in more than 203 countries and supports all prominent credit cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Citibank, and more. To start dropshipping, you will need a business PayPal account. NOTE that PayPal is not supported in all countries. Its fees per transaction are 5.4% + $0.30.

Stripe. A US-based payment gateway available in more than 25 countries, supports all major credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club, American Express, and others. Stripe’s transaction fees are 2.9% + $0.30.

Authorize.net. This payment gateway is available in 33 countries and supports easy integration into WooCommerce online stores. Its transaction fees are 2.9% + $0.30 for e-commerce and dropshipping stores. Besides this, also expect to pay a $49 setup fee and $25 monthly gateway fee.

How much does it cost to develop an e-commerce website?

The cost to create an e-commerce website depends on its complexity, the number of features you want to integrate, your selected platform, the location of your development team, and requirements regarding the design.

For example, you can develop a simple WooCommerce website with a free design template with developers from Ukraine from $10,000- $15,000.

In comparison, a sophisticated two-sided marketplace with a custom design built by developers from the U.S. will cost from $150,000.

To receive a more precise estimate, use our project cost calculator.

Developing an e-commerce website: final thought

Before developing an e-commerce website you need to select your business model, monetization strategy, number of products you will sell, and create a list of essential features. Then, based on this information, you, together with your e-commerce development team, will find the most suitable platform and add all the necessary plugins to make the online store meet your business requirements.

If you have any questions on how to build an e-commerce website from scratch, do not hesitate to write to us.

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Unparalleled Web & Mobile Development Services for all Markets

Posted on August 28, 2023September 20, 2023 by Pavel Tantsiura

In this issue:

Steps to Achieving Effective Mobile App Development
Critical Steps Taken by the APP Solutions’ Web & Mobile Development Gurus

The importance of a fully functional and responsive website or mobile app cannot be overemphasized especially in this day and age where the majority of your customers can be found on the internet. Thanks to the advancement of technology, a large percentage of the world population have benefited from a quality, affordable and effective means of acquiring information from the web through internet-enabled, portable devices. This has enabled the sharing of information through the internet much quicker and effectively due to the already existing audience.

With that, the importance of effective web & mobile development services for any business that seeks to have an upper hand over its competitors cannot be underrated.

Steps to Achieving Effective Mobile App Development

The influx of mobile app developers in the market has its upsides and downsides. One major advantage is the availability and ease of finding a mobile app developer in your location. Nonetheless, the major disadvantage is that a good number of these app developers and web development companies claim to do what they cannot achieve.

The same issue has also been experienced in mobile web development where few service providers who claim to offer top-notch services can actually measure up to their promises. The problem with these companies is the fact that they are more focused on the end as opposed to the means of achieving their objective. The consequence of this is ineffective mobile app development.

On the flip side, The APP Solutions (TAS) technologies have a different approach to how it relates to its clients. With a customer-centric approach, we are able to analyze customer needs before giving appropriate solutions to meet the said customer demands.

Critical Steps Taken by the APP Solutions’ Web & Mobile Development Gurus

TAS takes into account customer needs before embarking on its problem-solving mission. This process entails analyzing customer needs in-depth first, to establish how these demands can be executed in a proper manner. Thereafter, we analyze the company’s competition to determine what extra capabilities can be added to outdo their business rivals. When all is said and done, mobile app development gurus and web developers kick in to offer their foreseen solutions.

Everything is pre-planned and achieved within the stipulated time-frame to suit the customer’s needs.

Requisites of an Effective Mobile & Web Development Process

TAS approach to offering quality services is subdivided into different categories namely: proper business analysis, web, and mobile development, time-bound execution and launch of projects, effective and meaningful support services, systematic development process, pegged on well thought of UI/UX and architecture of the mobile app and website.

Business analysis is important as it helps to iron out issues surrounding market competition and brings out never-seen-before ideas that may be essential for your business. TAS puts a lot of emphasis on business analysis in mobile web app development and desktop web development to identify blocks and holes in the market. That way, they can help your business capitalize on these fissures to attain success.

We place an equally important focus on UI and UX. User experience is crucial to the success of any app or website as it increases conversion rates, bolsters customer loyalty, and minimizes the company’s expenditure. Simply put, your customers will be willing to settle for your services depending on the experience they get from the platforms you have set out for them. This relation between UI and UX is what TAS strives to achieve through market research.

Similarly, TAS mobile app developers and website designers maintain a high level of focus on architecture as it plays a huge role in the appeal factor of their work. Website and app look and feel is an important part of user experience. This therefore boosts and bolsters your chances of attracting customers due to the usability of the platform. Moreover, architecture also has an influence on your page rank and the reliability of the information.

The development stage is by far one of the most important parts of coming up with a functional app or website. Our mobile app developer and web designer take a pre-planned approach to ensure the product comes out as envisioned by the customer. This also goes hand in hand with the launch of the product since it has to coincide with the set dates for the launch of the product. The release date of the product is vital since it determines whether the company will be able to achieve its objectives based on the dynamics of its market.

Lastly, The App Solutions customer support framework acts as the heart of the company, which keeps its customers going even after the completion of the project. TAS support services are essential in ensuring your app and website is running effectively without hitches. In turn, this ensures your business does not experience any downtime as a result of either your website or app being down.

Studies show that companies that develop effective platforms for their customers do not have to worry about their customers being loyal to the brand. TAS helps your business achieve this by offering groundbreaking web and marketing solutions for your company.

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