This article introduces how to build an EC (e-commerce) site, organized by type of EC service. By "EC service," we mean a service that provides the management features — like a cart and product registration — needed to build an EC site. Knowing this alone won't cover everything, but we hope it helps you move smoothly through the process of considering how to build one.

Comparing the different types of EC and their characteristics

This time we'll mainly cover "EC sites." Building your own EC site isn't the only way to sell products — you can also sell by listing products on an existing sales platform (an EC mall). In this article, we'll distinguish between an "EC site," which you manage yourself, and an "EC mall," where you list products within someone else's platform.

• EC malls (Amazon, Rakuten Ichiba, PayPay Mall, etc.)
• EC sites
  • SaaS (ASP) template-based type (BASE, STORES, etc.)
  • SaaS (ASP) balanced type, with an emphasis on extensibility (Shopify, etc.)
  • SaaS (ASP) hands-on type with strong support (Mercart, ec-force, etc.)
  • Open-source type (EC-CUBE, etc.)

With an EC mall, you just list your products

An EC mall is a form of EC where many shops are set up within one large platform. There are many major services of this kind, such as Amazon, Rakuten Ichiba, and PayPay Mall. Here, we're treating it separately from EC sites.

The advantage of an EC mall is that you can set up your own shop on the platform, and the mall itself already draws in customers. The downside is that you have to compete against others within the platform, and customization — such as design — tends to be limited.

Pros: You can set up your own shop on the platform; the mall itself has customer-drawing power; and more

Cons: You have to compete within the platform; design customization tends to be limited; and more

Examples of this type: Amazon, Rakuten Ichiba, PayPay Mall

Easy to sign up, with templates to match your taste. EC site: SaaS (ASP) template-based type

See the column below for more on the terms SaaS and ASP. In this article, we'll use "SaaS" consistently. The SaaS (ASP) template-based type is the easiest way to build an EC site. In most cases, you can start listing products right after signing up. Services like BASE and STORES fall into this category.

Most of these services let you choose from design templates, and you can customize them to some extent by swapping or adding units. That said, be aware that adjusting font sizes or fine-tuning the layout may require HTML/CSS knowledge.

Many of these services also offer plans with no setup or maintenance fees, making it easy to get started, though in exchange they often take a cut in the form of payment processing fees.

Pros: Easy to sign up and get started; a wide variety of design templates to choose from; plans with no setup or maintenance fees are often available; and more

Cons: Fine-grained design changes may not be possible; payment fees are often charged, so costs rise as sales grow; and more

Examples of this type: BASE, STORES

Not just simple EC! EC site: SaaS (ASP) balanced type with an emphasis on extensibility

The balanced type lets you build an EC site using design templates while also offering rich extensibility. Shopify falls into this category.

Since you can get up and running just by choosing a design, its basic feature set resembles the template-based type. Shopify lets you use its payment functionality as an API, which you can leverage for significant feature extensions.

That said, Shopify assumes you're on a paid monthly plan, so there are ongoing maintenance costs. Another downside is that extending its features is difficult without some technical knowledge.

Examples of feature extensions

Examples of feature extensions include building a blog that integrates with a CMS to show product links (with stock status), or adding a login feature with a diagnostic quiz that recommends products to users.

Any EC service that offers an API can technically support the features above, but among them, Shopify is especially easy to use and has a growing user base. On the design side, if you're able to build from scratch, you can pay attention to even the smallest details.

Pros: Payment functionality is available as an API, making feature extensions easier; you can add EC functionality to a meticulously crafted design; and more

Cons: Some plans come with monthly maintenance fees; extending features is difficult without technical knowledge; and more

Examples of this type: Shopify

A Shopify implementation case study

At our company, we built an EC site for a wine brand called "Julie" using Shopify. It's a service that not only lets users buy wine, but also recommends wine based on each user's taste preferences. We use Shopify for product management and payments. This kind of service, with additional custom features*, is a great fit for Shopify. *Features like login and the diagnostic quiz required separate development. Julie - A bottle of wine from around the world, just for you

Want to keep improving operations together. EC site: SaaS (ASP) hands-on type with strong support

The hands-on approach to building an EC site means choosing an EC site provider (operating company) that's set up to work alongside you throughout the build. Building an EC site isn't just about the initial setup — the know-how for what information to deliver to users and how to drive conversions, refined through ongoing operational improvements, is extremely important. As a company grows larger, requirements like "we want to feed purchase data into our existing analytics tools" also start to come up.

The biggest advantage here is being able to consult on such requirements and requests, and to run the EC site together with hands-on support. The downside is that, while you can consult on all sorts of requests, the build and maintenance costs tend to be higher.

Pros: Operational know-how is available; you can consult on improvements; you can request detailed feature extensions; and more

Cons: Initial build and maintenance costs tend to be higher; and more

Examples of this type: Mercart, ec-force

Want full customization to build a truly original EC site. EC site: Open-source type

All the EC site types covered so far are SaaS — meaning you build your EC site using a pre-packaged service. The open-source type, by contrast, lets you build an EC site with complete customization freedom.

"Open source" refers to software whose source code is published free of charge. You can download it for free and customize the source code however you like.

The SaaS EC services introduced here are large-scale services, so it rarely happens, but if the EC service you're using shuts down, you'd have to shut down your EC site along with it. On the other hand, building everything yourself from scratch is enormously expensive. That's where the option of using publicly available open-source software comes in.

That said, you'll need a certain level of technical knowledge, since you'll also need to set up your own infrastructure, such as servers.

Pros: You can build a truly original EC site; you're not affected by a service shutting down; and more

Cons: You may need technical knowledge for infrastructure and other aspects of the build; and more

Examples of this type: EC-CUBE

What are ASP and SaaS?

If you look at the official websites of EC services, you'll often come across the term "ASP." ASP stands for "Application Service Provider," a broad term that roughly means "service provider." Because of this, there isn't really a defining characteristic of what an ASP is.

ASP doesn't mean "a template-based service like BASE" — any provider offering an EC service can be called an "ASP."

You'll also often see the term "SaaS." This stands for "Software as a Service," referring to a service you can use over the internet without installing any software on your PC. This term, too, now applies to almost every service, so it no longer functions as a meaningful way to describe a service's characteristics.

Explanations like "it has downsides because it's an ASP" or "it's cheap because it's SaaS" aren't necessarily wrong, but since they skip over the details, they can easily be misleading.

Typical costs for maintaining an EC site

Initial setup for an EC site can often be done for free if you don't have particular requirements — BASE and STORES, for example, both offer free plans.

Maintaining an EC site broadly involves four types of costs:

• Monthly fee: the usage fee for the EC service
• Payment processing fee: a fee charged on product sales
• Server costs: costs related to server usage
• Other: bank transfer fees and the like

Taking BASE and Shopify as examples (as of July 2022):

• BASE Standard Plan: service usage fee* 3%, payment processing fee 3.6% + ¥40
• Shopify Basic Plan: monthly fee $25, payment processing fee 3.4%

*BASE's service usage fee is a type of payment processing fee and isn't charged until you make a sale.

For example, if you sell a ¥1,000 product 100 times in a month, your sales would be ¥100,000 (excluding shipping and other costs for this example). The fee calculation in this case would look like this:

• BASE: (¥1,000 × 3% + (¥1,000 × 3.6% + ¥40)) × 100 orders = ¥10,600
• Shopify: (¥1,000 × 100 orders × 3.4%) + $25 (at ¥135/$1) = ¥6,775

In this plan comparison, Shopify — despite its ongoing maintenance cost — ends up cheaper.

Also note that BASE charges "other" fees, such as bank transfer fees. That said, if you have a certain level of sales volume, BASE also offers a Growth plan with lower fees, so it's not necessarily accurate to say BASE is always more expensive.

This varies depending on order volume and other factors, but in general, an EC site with high sales and many orders should prioritize payment processing fees. If your sales are low and you're just starting out, paying processing fees on a free plan often keeps maintenance costs lower.

With SaaS, you don't need to think about this, but building an open-source EC site requires setting up your own infrastructure, which means server costs. Server costs vary widely depending on the level of performance you need and your actual traffic (data transfer volume), so we'll skip the details here.

A guide to building an EC site

Here are some points worth knowing when building an EC site.

Decide on a service by researching examples

When building an EC site, the most important thing is to look for EC sites in the same industry and research how they're set up. There are various ways to find examples, but the easiest is to look at the case studies published by the service you're considering using. Most services have a case study page you can reference. Rather than looking at as many examples as possible, it's important to find case studies similar to yours in scale and industry.

• BASE: https://thebase.in/category
• STORES: https://stores.jp/ec/shopinfo
• Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/jp/examples
• Mercart: https://mercart.jp/case
• ec-force: https://ec-force.com/user_voice
• EC-CUBE: https://www.ec-cube.net/product/cases/backnumber.php

Organize information about the products you're selling

More important than which EC service you use is making sure your product's appeal comes across to customers. To do that, prepare materials in advance — catchy copy that conveys the product's features, appealing visuals, and clear product descriptions. It also helps to think through the intent behind your messaging, since you'll likely keep improving it after launch.

Ask people (support) when you're unsure

Most EC services offer excellent support. Making good use of support is important for figuring out what's possible and what's difficult. It's important to clearly communicate what kind of EC site you're aiming to build, and to thoroughly check whether the service's features are a good match.

In particular, our company specializes in building EC sites with Shopify. We're happy to help even before you've decided on an EC service, so feel free to reach out. Contact us

You can also use a payment service

Using a payment service to build your EC site is another option. Unlike the EC sites described above, a payment service only provides the mechanics of credit card processing — there's no functionality for registering products or changing prices. This might seem inconvenient at first glance, but a payment service like this can actually be a great fit when you need payment processing that isn't tied to a specific product.

For example, our company built an e-gift service called "KUROKONO Gift." It lets you send flower gifts to someone you want to celebrate, for occasions like birthdays or weddings. Multiple people can chip in for the cost of the gift, and everyone can add a message together. We use the payment service Stripe for this "collect money from multiple people to buy a single gift" system. KUROKONO Gift

There's a lot to consider when building an EC site, and it's often more than a single person in charge can decide alone. When it comes to how to build one, we think the fastest path is to lean on the various services available and make good use of what they offer.