How Can Laravel Be Used for eCommerce Purposes

Laravel is a framework written in PHP. Like other frameworks, it is free and open source.. Laravel is used when creating applications with the MVC (Model View Controller) model. Many consider it one of the best MVC frameworks (also because Laravel has a large community).

It is considered as one of the most popular, promising and used PHP frameworks and receives such titles as the best enterprise-level framework and the best framework for personal projects. The popularity of the framework is growing:

Laravel is suitable for those who want to quickly and correctly create a reliable web project.

The release of Laravel 1 took place not so long ago – in the middle of 2011. The current 9th version was released quite recently, in February 2022.

Laravel development

A Laravel application can be developed on any operating system. You can use an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) of your choice, such as PhpStorm.

This is where the Laravel IDE Helper Generator can come in handy – a package that generates a helper file that contains static facade classes.

The second useful tool will be Composer, which allows you to update the framework and upload additional packages to the project. Most PHP packages have minimal dependencies and can therefore be easily added to an application.

Any newly-created project needs to be tested – Laravel provides functional texts that check the functionality of the project (from the user’s point of view), and unit tests that check the very logic of the project.

Another useful tool is Laravel Debugbar, a package that allows you to monitor and debug code (integrates into PHP Debug Bar). It tracks queries, for example, allows you to track SQL queries for their optimization.

Laravel Mix helps with building a project. This API is used to define Webpack build instructions for a Laravel application.

Benefits of Laravel for eCommerce

Laravel is a powerful and versatile development tool with scalability, good built-in caching mechanism and high development speed.

Laravel keeps up with the times, it changes and improves. It is a modern framework suitable for a wide range of tasks.

Laravel allows you to use a service provider, thanks to which you can centrally connect the necessary application components.

In Laravel, you can easily extend any components.

It has the convenient routing and validation of incoming parameters.

Laravel makes it possible to work with various databases, change their structure, roll back changes, etc.

Laravel project creation offers:

• Wide functionality (you can make a project with almost any necessary functionality);
• Convenient administrative panel (you can make a panel for a specific project and its tasks);
• High level of database security (websites are reliably protected from SQL injections);
• Scalability (the functionality of the project can be easily expanded).

What types of eCommerce applications can be done with Laravel

• Online stores and marketplaces
• Content Management Systems (CMSs)
• Customer-Relationship Management systems (CRMs)
• Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs), etc.

For the purposes of this post, we’ll examine the benefits of the above types.

Laravel online stores and marketplaces

The Laravel framework can help with creating an online store and marketplace. It suits these types of projects. You can easily incorporate such functionality as:

• Shopping cart, shipping and payment methods with the ability to print shipping labels
• Landing page with categories, filtering and sorting options
• Product details page with product description, gallery, features, rating and reviews
• Marketing tools like coupons, price comparison, etc.
• Customer data management to track orders, returns and refunds
• Vendor moderation: registration and approval
• Standalone vendor dashboards to allow uploading products, images and setting prices for products
• Order tracking for vendors and customers 

Laravel CMSs

Several CMSs have been developed based on Laravel, the most interesting ones being October CMS, Lavalite, and PyroCMS. The most of already existing CMSs can offer the following range of perks to developers and end users:

• Open source, the functionality can be extended using an extensive list of free add-ons and plugins.
• Complete, easy-to-use platform with documentation, plugins, and themes.
• Convenient and nice administrative panel that you can customize for yourself. Built-in file manager that allows you to work with files and images directly in the browser.
• Responsive design, customizability, clean code that is easy to work with, documentation, and free updates.

ERP systems on Laravel

ERP systems are crucial for companies that want to manage and increase efficiency of their business. With the ERP system in place, organizations can automate the whole operation: product planning and development, manufacturing, accounting and sales, human resource management, etc. Tasks resolved by ERP:

• Project management including task assignment to users.
• Report generation to make informed decisions.
• Inventory management to track in-stock/out of stock items.
• Human Resource management to handle information on employees: track records and designations.
• Accounting management to control budgeting, ledgers, payment receipts, tax management, etc.
• Management of customer data like communication history, calls, contract information, etc.
• Management of production to plan production, control bill of material, etc.
• Supply management and handling of returns, shipping and transportation data.
• Sales management with reports to have analytical data and reports on product selling.

Laravel-based CRMs

CRMs are good for the business when you need dynamic multi-login software to manage leads, accounts, contact details, quotes, invoices, taxes, clients, and employees. When is CRM your choice?

• You need a customizable interface
• The app should have multiple user roles and manage access rights
• Subscription model and recurring bill management are required
• Project management tools with task assignment
• You want to have all leads in one place with the ability to attach notes, tasks, and files.
• Support system to increase customer retention rate
• Task-based billing and time card calculator for employees and online payment options.
• Track time spent on tasks and bill your customers.
• Link contracts and sales

Closing

If you need any kind of Laravel development services or want to hire Laravel developers, do contact us. We have experience in developing ERP, CRM, CMS systems and web apps on Laravel and can assist you in building your app in a professional and quality-assured manner.