Learn how to build an e-commerce website from scratch using PHP and SQL with this free online web development course.

This course explains how to use the PHP programming language to create a functioning e-commerce website from scratch. We introduce you to PHP and the Bootstrap CSS framework to enable you to market and sell products online. We also show you how to employ the open-source Atom editor, a powerful colour-coded interface that indicates whether code is correctly written. The course takes you through various web-development practices, including how to create drop-down menus (with classes, I.D.s and anchor tags), how to insert comments in ‘.php’ files, how to insert background and product images and how to use CSS to change the style and colour of web page elements.

We also demonstrate how to establish an SQL database using phpMyAdmin and how to create and customize product tables. Importantly, we show you how to link products in the database with the website until updating the 'back-end' also updates the website. The course breaks down how to add the ‘Shopping Cart’ feature to your website and how to configure the database using the payment gateway 'Stripe'.

This course suits anyone who is interested in web development or works in information technology (IT) and would like to polish their programming skills. E-commerce development is essential to many IT departments so mastering this skill can boost your career prospects. Small businesses rely on the internet to drive sales and establish their brands and this course can also open doors for them.