Here are some questions to consider before you build your ecommerce site:
- What type of products are you going to sell? Are any products digital? Are you seeling wholeslae? Do you offer discounts or coupons?
- How are you going to take payment? (payment gateway, currency)
- Where are you going to host the site?
- How many products are you planning to carry? Do you already have the products listed somewhere? Do you require bulk uploading? Are there various product configurations? (colors, sizes, models, options)
- How are you going to brand your new store? You brand image should follow through on all aspects of your business, logo, colors, design, customer service policies and even your auto responder correspondence.
- How will the design be set up? You want your site to be attractive and professional with functional navigation. A store normally has a layered or tiered approach to navigation using categories and collections. Often sidebars are included to contain newsletter subscriptions & other information. Your homepage and internal pages should feature your header with your logo and perhaps your tagline.
- What are your main menu items? Basic links to consider are Shopping Cart/Store – Categories – My Account – Best Sellers – Login- Contact. A search box should be prominently located near the top. Are you having other sections on the site to support your marketing efforts?
- What product selling information do you want displayed? Will you require multiple images, click to enlarge, short descriptions, long descriptions, reviews, awards, product specs, codes, multi-media selling tools such as video trailer or audio samples, colours, sizes etc? Are you wanting social media sharing in the cart? Do you want to recommend other related products or show what other shoppers have purchased?
- What additional content do you want to include? Is there already a home page with blog, news, social media feeds, facebook likes, articles & resources. Other sections or information to include would be Customer Service, Privacy, Guarantee, Returns and Ordering Policies. Some products types require care and handling instructions.
- What messaging do you want on your autoresponders? What emails will you be using? How will people contact you for inquiries?
- How do you want the checkout process to work? Do you require help pop-ups? Where do you want the “return to shopping” to go? How do you want your shipping to work? How are taxes being calculated? Are there any upcoming changes to taxes in your area?
- Is your sales funnel reflected in your website? Are you collecting emails for lead generation? Is sharing and emailing to a friend easy to to? Is your SEO strategy reflected in your product pages and other sections of the website?
- What ecommerce features do you want?
- Marketing & Promotion Tools i.e., coupons, discounts, free shipping, recently viewed products, upsells, cross sells, wishlists, multi-tiered pricing & MORE.
- Analytics and Reporting i.e., sales, low stock, tags, coupons used and MORE.
- SEO Features i.e., Google site maps, url rewrites, search terms & MORE.
- Site Managementi.e., admin panel, multi-lingual, multiple commissions, user permissions, tax rate management, customer groups, content management system & MORE.
- Catalog Management i.e., inventory management, batch imports, product configurations, digital products, customization, attribute sets & MORE.
- Catalog Browsing i.e., categories, configurable search, recently viewed, comparisons, cross sells, upsells, related items, search term cloud, tags, reviews, breadcrumbs & MORE.
- Product Browsing i.e., multiple images, zoom, product reviews, add to wish list, send to friend, stock availability & MORE.
- Mobile Commerce
- International i.e., multi languages, currencies, taxes, country lists & MORE.
- Checkout i.e., multiple addresses, tax & shipping estimates, gift messages, saved cart, guest checkout & MORE.
- Shipping i.e., multiple shipments, allowable destination countries, flat rate per order/item, table rates, order tracking & MORE.
- Payment i.e., integration with various gateways , POs, payment extensions & MORE.
- Customer Service i.e., customer account features, order history, order tracking, forgot password, order emails & MORE.
- Customer Accounts Offering i.e., order status, reorders, recently ordered items, address book, billing addresses, wishlist, newsletter subscription & MORE.
- Order Management i.e., create orders, print invoices, credit memos, split fulfilment, call centre invoice creation, email notifications, RSS & MORE.
Good ecommerce sites that convert well require good research. Review your competitors sites and your favourite online stores. List off the features you like and do not like. Work with your developer to see what is possible within your chosen platform. Remember that good images, messaging and reviews can help substantially in selling your online product. Feel free to contact us to discuss your ecommerce needs!
