The eCommerce sector is huge, more than we anticipate. And this spans in all terms of technology, scope, and competition. For all the entrepreneurs that are driving their way to penetrate the eCommerce industry, they must be sure of their undertakings. By this, we mean to say that type of website they employ and the technology stack they incorporate. As a matter of fact, there exist plenty of options when it comes to building in an eCommerce web application.
React, Vue, Angular, all ensemble to help developers deploy the best of the eCommerce website and circumvent the complex processings. However, these are primarily confined to the development of front-end, and you might need to reconsider the choice as eCommerce web applications have to have a stronger backend too, right? Now, this where we introduce you to a recent addition in the technology used for eCommerce web application development, and that is, Node.js.
Reasons To Consider Node.js For Development of eCommerce Web Application
Node.js is the JavaScript runtime framework that enumerates all the features Embedded with the script. The asynchronous event-driven programming being one, node.js gives developers the ease to restrict blocking when served with multiple API calls. This suggests that when the server is flooded with numerous requests at the same time, it will continue to work instead of being bogged down by the calls. This feature is apparently a must for the eCommerce websites as the gamut is huge, and further, the access scope is undefined. Since node.js follows the event-based programming, requests are stored and called back on triggering of a particular event.
Satisfactory, right? But this isn’t the only reason that you should consider node.js to be your development language for an eCommerce Web application.
- Being a product of JavaScript, developers can use the language for client-side coding as well as server-side programming.
- Node.js enables the development of real-time Web applications. The fact that the industry of eCommerce is booming with success, deploying modern-day apps is a must, and here, node.js leads the charge.
- The fact that JavaScript uses machine code, the development process is quick, reducing the time to market. Of course, you wouldn’t want to delay launching your Web store.
- Node.js has extensive community support, which extends to 60,000 and more. This ensures the presence of multiple modules and tools, that help fuel the process of development and at the same, trigger deployment of feature-rich apps with the modules.
And, finally, the database. When you operate an eCommerce store, you would definitely need to store customers’ information, and for that, a database is a must. Considering that MongoDB is itself a JavaScript product, developers would not find it hard to integrate the database within their store, let alone worry about syntax differences.
Having said that, it would not be much surprise that node.js is among the top 10 skills as searched by the job seekers. And this is just the start, with time the popularity is only expected to rise, opening newer avenues for the industry. If you are planning to build an eCommerce web application for your business, investing in node.js would be the best option.
Now, let’s move ahead with the detailed guideline on how to build an eCommerce web application using Node.
Building An E-Commerce Web Application With Node
Talking about the development of an eCommerce web application for the eCommerce store, there lie two different choices of architecture, which further determine the course of action as part of the eCommerce web application development process.
(a) Using the MEAN/MERN Stack Architecture
(b) Using the Microservices Architecture
MEAN/Mern Stack
A Mean stack architecture has the following elements:
- MongoDB – The database used for storing data and runs continuously.
- Angular js – Front end development framework that is based on the MVC architecture.
- Express js – Supports the creation of simplified interface
- Node js – The JavaScript runtime framework working on a non-blocking I/O model and uses event-driven mechanisms.
So, these are the four main touchpoints you would need to have a fully functional eCommerce Web application. Before we get into the in-app processing, one thing to note is that this architecture works well when you have a traffic count of say 10,000 or less.
In case you are just starting up, the MEAN architecture sounds good
Backend Happenings In The Application
First, it is the angular js that comes into the picture. All of the request served by the client-side is caught here for processing.
Once the requests embedded get processed, they are then sent to the node js structure, which apparently falls funeral the server-side. Here, the requests are forwarded to the Express js, which then looks up for database access. The request is then handled, and the response sent back to the Express. This would then relay the response to the Node, which sends it to the angular. This is all about the processing of the application given the framework being the Node.
For entrepreneurs that seek to kickstart their business using a robust application, while adding flexibility and scalability, use the concept of MEAN stack node js development.
Microservices Architecture
As evident, the above serves suitable for the websites that have a decent footfall. But for the organizations that experience huge traffic, MEAN architecture would not function best. For this, we propose the microservices architecture for the development of eCommerce web application.
For large scale applications, working on the entire piece seems complicated, and hence, breaking down them into smaller chunks, then working on them separately to finally fuse each for the final product is a better approach. Secondly, following the monolithic kind of approach seeks huge maintenance. On the contrary, the microservices-based architecture empowers bundle of services individually gives developers the ease to function on each separately. This means that developers can deploy product-specific metadata, work on it and send it back to the application.
Further, the microservices kind of architecture enables developing using different codes, and this eliminates the dependency on the technology stack.
Once you have made your choice on the architecture type for the development; you can then move ahead with the process. For the best results, it is advocated that you hire node.js developer or development company that would cater to all your project needs. It is essential to have a team of skilled developers who have extensive knowledge of the technology and owns the knack to create feature-rich and responsive eCommerce applications.
Final Word
No doubt, the spectrum of the node is far more efficient than others in the same line. From PayPal to Forbes, all have been using node for the development of their website. It’s time that the e-commerce sector to use it to make the most out of the technology. From event-driven calling to quick-responses, node js is the ideal choice for all the entrepreneurs that are about to incorporate a web application for their eCommerce industry.
