Your business is growing and you decided to create an online store? Excellent idea! Ecommerce is getting more and more popular and strengthens its position in the modern economy. Almost every business today has a shopping website and uses it as an additional sales channel. For some companies, it has even become the most profitable one, which is not a surprise in our digital age.
So, where to start and what is important to know when contacting web developers? Generally, a very small amount of entrepreneurs has an experience in partnership with developers or possesses the necessary information to create their own webstore. In this article, we have compiled the main points you should pay attention to. Here we go!
Ecommerce platform
Probably, it will be the first thing you should choose. A lot of information about various platforms and their ratings are freely available. It will take some time to study their features, functionality, interfaces, all pros and cons. But you have to do it, because it will help you to understand, what platform suits you best and what ecommerce development company to choose.
We have an extensive experience in creating Magento– and PrestaShop-based webstores. Take a look at our portfolio and let it inspire you.
Concept and appearance
After choosing the platform you should think carefully about your future online store concept and appearance. Apart from design, you should also consider the content.
- Homepage. Choose the name and logo for your webstore, determine its menu items and products search. You can use sliders for advertising, announcement or top products promotion. Don’t forget about the quick view option, social network icons, and a Newsletter subscription block.
- Catalog and product pages. Think about what your catalog would look like — its appearance, navigation, filters, and other functions you want to implement. Blocks on the product page are also important — photos, description, price, reviews, Q&A, related products, adding to the shopping cart and other.
- Cart. Your shopping cart may include order adjustments and shipping cost calculation, loyalty program and personal discounts, and many other features. In this case, don’t create unnecessary fields for filling, if you don’t need them to send the order to the client. Save products in the cart so that buyers can return to them in a few days. You should also decide, what will you do with the cart abandonment.
- CheckOut. This is the main point in the whole process of online shopping. All steps of the registration and payment should be as simple as possible. No extra blocks and unnecessary actions, everything should be intuitive for a buyer. Allow your clients to make purchases in “one step”.
- Account. Choose how the registration will be proсeeded: will there be any fields for filling, or social network login will be enough. In the first case, you should decide, what information should be requested. Also, think about the ability to track the status of the order through a user’s account.
- Other pages. Consider what other pages can also be needed: News, Blog, About Us, Privacy Policy, Shipping, Returns. Their content should be as accessible and useful to buyers as possible.
Functionality
- Structure. You should carefully consider the structure of your store. To do this you should provide developers with full information about your products and how you want to categorize them.
- Import / Export. It will be easier for you to manage the webstore, if it has an implemented accounting system.
- Payment systems. Determine what payment systems you want to work with: PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe or something more suitable for you.
- Delivery. It will be better to automate the processes of interaction with shipping companies. It will help you not only to avoid errors associated with the delivery and calculation of its value but will also help to track the life cycle of the purchase.
- ERP system integration. If your online store will need the integration with the ERP system, tell developers about it. Don’t forget to specify what type of data should be uploaded and how often.
- Interaction with customers. Keep in mind contact forms, chat rooms, call order form, interaction with the support service. The client should be able to easily contact you, and you should decide how to make it possible.
- Server choice and configuration. The choice itself should depend on the type and size of your store, the number of goods, visitors, and buyers. Don’t worry about it, developers will help you to find a server that meets all the requirements of your store.
- SEO optimization and promotion. Ecommerce development company can provide you with basic optimization at the step of creating an online store. But for more professional website promotion, additional SEO services will be required.
Honestly speaking, we mentioned only basic points you should think about before creating an online store. Everything else depends on your ideas and determined by your collaboration with developers. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and communicate.
If there is something else you want to know about webstore creation, contact us.
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