What We Need From You If You Are Plotting Web Store From Scratch

1. What we would like to hear first is a business idea of your site. It could be narrated in a form of business story or handed over as a solid specification with the description of main functions and users cases. We would like to be aware of what you sell , what attributes your products might have, to whom it would be sold, how items are to be paid and how money flows are to be organized.

2. When the overall business idea is clear to us we can continue talking functional part and project features and modules.  Usually, when we are speaking about web site implementation with client we mention the most significant pieces:

• Design;
• Customers functions and features/ interactions between users;
• Backend administration functions and features;
• Payment methods;
• ERP/POS system integrations and 3rd party solutions.

3. I will go through each piece more thoroughly to help you understanding what we need to negotiate together and what  elements your future store might consist of.

Design

The common approach is that design can be custom  (unique) and predefined (based on off-the-shelf Skin). However, there could be combinations.

Custom design is a good option in the following cases:

• Your Brand is prominent and too much at stake with an unique design;
• You are building your site from scratch and your interface is very unique and off-the-shelf Themes simply do not offer a such;
• You are connecting your current site with an online store and both sites should be uniform;
• You are a perfectionist and only custom design is your option:)

When you can go with Predefined design:

• You benchmark your market and planning to release trial and cheap version quick and at minimum expenses;
• Branding is not important for you and many very good Magento and Prestashop off-the-shelf Themes have everything you need for your functions and business model.

Customers functions and features/ interactions between users

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– We would welcome you describing what actions your customer may take on site to buy and pay your product .
– What business features you believe will be necessary to benefit shopping process or choose a product? – What are unique features inherent for your business model only you need to be implemented online?
– If your business model presumes that customers will interact with each other (communicate to each other, have deals with each other, etc) we would need to be aware of it first.
– If you are looking for different customers groups as B2B model presumes, please, let us know how you wanted this working.

Backend administration functions and features

– Here we would welcome you telling what administration options you need to have for leading successful online business.
– Majority of administration features such as: tracking orders, sales reports, adding products online, setting up flexible price rules, setting delivery options, discount coupons  and many more are all available in such platforms as Prestashop, Magento, Shopify, etc  but better to tell us what you need in case if you are not familiar with these platforms  as the most of clients are usually not very much.

Payment methods

As a site owner you have to decide how you would like your customer will be paying your products. They can pay with credit cards, by Paypal, with bank transfer or with “Cash on delivery” option. If you are looking for some specific payment service like Postfinance or Sagepay please, tell us in advance. Knowing your business model and how you are going to monetize your store we can propose the best payment method for you in given circumstances.

ERP/POS system integrations and 3rd party solutions

You might think about it if your future product catalogue is huge and you are going to import them from some online database, which renders such a service. If you prefer managing your stocks and sales from some very profound ERP system and get your products submitted to your online store automatically and orders synced smoothly. We can engineer an integration module syncing both parties and pulling data out from one system and submitting to another in real time mode.

Another wide spread 3rd part solution many store owners are willing to connect with are marketing solutions, servicing referrals, bonus and rewards programs and marketing campaigns. One of such examples is Sweet tooth for Magento program.

We can seamlessly integrate it with your store and attune it to your business.

When the most significant aspects of your future store are revealed you can easily plot your online business and structure your specification for us.

Good luck and welcome to BelVG!