Nowadays, it seems like everyone has an online business. You can open a store for virtually any product in existence and earn money selling from anywhere in the world. However, it’s not always so easy, with unexpected pitfalls and potentially expensive mistakes.
We chat about this with Igor Iemelianov, PhD in Computer Science and CEO of IT Delight, an e-commerce website development company that has been providing e-commerce development services since 2012.
Your company is now in the TOP 5 IT e-commerce services in Ukraine, as well as the TOP 10 in Florida. How did you reach this level of success?
The role of the IT Delight leader is to lay the foundation for all team members to make their own decisions. The ability to negotiate, balance the interests of all parties and find effective compromises are the main building blocks of our success. But for me, the real definition of success is enjoying your work and getting to see the results of your decisions. Not all of them are 100% successful, but generally speaking, we are always moving forward to bigger and brighter opportunities.
How many clients have you served thus far and are there any particular industries you work in most frequently?
We work with large and start-up companies in all industries, including healthcare, fashion, restaurants, cosmetics and many others. Since we started a little over 12 years ago, we have accumulated more than 100 satisfied customers, 34 of which are currently active. We like the fact that customers are always pleasantly surprised by our engineering expertise. For a medium-sized company, we pride ourselves on punching above our weight in terms of technical value.
What unique opportunities do you offer your customers?
Rather than simply developing attractive websites, we combine our experience in e-commerce and information technology to create a comprehensive and scalable business strategy for our clients. In addition, we implement proper security systems, as well as use advanced technologies to create solutions that are relevant in today’s rapidly changing market.
With more than a decade of experience, our team is familiar with the countless subtleties, potential obstacles and unique opportunities of the e-commerce sector. We are proud to consistently create successful trading platforms and offer a variety of development services for a vast array of clients.
Have there been clients in your practice who came to you after unsuccessful attempts with other agencies?
That’s a great question! Quite often, clients came to us who ordered a “cheaper” development service from another firm. Unfortunately, not all e-commerce development companies are capable of delivering quality results and ultimately, these clients spent far more money than they would have, had they selected a better firm in the first place. We have often helped these types of clients get back on their feet by restoring their platforms and enabling them to once again go live and start making money.
What were the most common mistakes you saw in these cases?
To reach the top, a business, like a rock climber, needs tools, experience and determination. But mistakes such as choosing the wrong e-commerce platform, misunderstanding the target audience, weak security, difficult navigation and poor UX, unoptimized content or weak marketing plans are some of the common pitfalls we’ve seen.
In order to surpass competitors and reach the very top, the choice of a reliable agency is crucial. With a combination of information technology knowledge and e-commerce development experience, any business idea will have a solid chance at success.
What would you recommend to companies that are planning to create an online market?
Every startup on the market starts with an idea. After that, you need to find an experienced team to bring this idea to life. A very important stage is research, niche selection and competitor analysis to make sure that the direction is correct and to avoid costly mistakes. After that, you’ll want to launch an MVP, and then test and launch the product. Also, after creating an online market, you need to prepare a marketing strategy in order to successfully promote the site.
We understand you organized your own Magento community. Tell us more about it.
Yes, last year we launched our own Pro Magento Community. This is an open community for Magento developers. We hold free online meetups, share useful professional content and have created an open platform for dialogue. During this year, our team has held more than 15 events and brought together over three hundred Magento developers.
Who can become a participant and what opportunities does it provide?
The community is free and anyone interested in Magento development can become a member. Anyone can put a question in the chat and get an answer to it, as well as volunteer to be a speaker at a virtual event or publish articles, which can accelerate career growth.
