E-commerce websites seem straightforward, and some of them are. However, we tend to end up building the complicated ones! They are only complicated because there are many, many details to consider and test… both on our end and the client’s end. It’s best to do all of the planning at the beginning to avoid changing specifications as the site is being built. Here are a few key items to consider.

1. Focus on the Objective

• Selling your product

Every design decision on an e-commerce site should be made with this goal in mind. However, there are a number of relevant secondary objectives you can also integrate into your plan without detracting from the main goal.

• Growing your email list
• Encouraging social media sharing
• Gathering testimonials & product reviews
• Offering post-sale support
• Increasing customer loyalty

2. Navigate for the Customers
E-commerce is about the products you sell. Your primary navigation should therefore reflect how your shoppers browse and categorize those products. Links to other website mainstays, like “about” and “contact” pages should assume a secondary role.

In addition, every page should be designed to facilitate movement towards your checkout. “Add to cart” links should always appear above the fold, even if that means information justifying the purchase must come lower down the page.

(You only need to sell someone once, but you want them to buy again and again).

3. Use Appropriate Content
Pick content that shows your products off to best effect. Be consistent in which content types you offer. Here are some sample content types we have found to be valuable.

• Professional photography
• Before & after pictures
• Customer reviews
• Engaging product descriptions
• Technical specifications
• Product comparisons

4. Brand Your Site Properly
Your online & offline branding must reflect and enhance each other, but on an e-commerce site, a clean, product-centric layout is essential. All online branding must be done in a way that supports the products you sell.

5. Stay Current
Keep your content and your promotions up to date.

A product page is like a promise to a customer. If you do not have the item, make sure your visitors know right away (preferably on the page), and not after they’ve gone through the entire checkout process, or worse still a week later when you enclose an apology with your manifest.

A promotion left to languish becomes an invitation for online coupon swappers to get access to discounts that no longer serve your purposes.

6. Consider the details
There are many programming considerations on an e-commerce site. How the details are handled will make a great impact on both cost and timing. Here are some key one to consider:

• Are you combining offline and online sales?
• Do you need the site to manage inventory?
• How will you ship the orders?
• Will you use a fulfillment house? How and when do they need the data?
• How accurate will you be about taxes?
• What reports do you need for accounting?
• What promotions and/or discounts will you be offering?
• Does the data from the site need to integrate into an internal database?

7. Plan SEO with People in Mind
Humans should be your primary audience, but there are a number of ways in which you can be friendly towards people and search engines at the same time!

• Use product names as page titles when descriptive
• Consider product descriptions as meta-descriptions
• Always include targeted search phrases when writing product descriptions
• Create landing pages tailored to different kinds of users
• Create unique landing pages for different campaigns and promotions
• Give visitors an easy way to link back to your products

8. Test and Monitor Outcomes
Never assume your ecommerce site is doing the work for you. Pick the measure that are important to you and confirm that your site is delivering. Look for weaknesses and test them until you get better outcomes. Here are some of the key metrics to consider:

• New visitor conversion rate
• Return visitor conversion rate
• Page views/visit
• Items/order
• Average order value
• Landing page bounce rates
• Landing page load times
• Traffic sources
• Orders per customer per year
• Shopping cart/checkout abandonment rate

E-commerce can be simple or very tricky. Thorough planning is what will keep your site on track.