“E-Commerce… consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet….” - Wikipedia
Since the underlying principles of the digital and physical marketplaces are the same, there are a number of lessons you can take from one to the other.

Here are four key elements of e-commerce drawn from the needs of brick-and-mortar businesses and enhanced by technology.

Online Storefront - The Product Manager

The online storefront is your digital place of business.  As with any business you want to customize it to fit your customers’ buying habits, your chosen branding, and the logistical needs …

Websites are tools, and the tools that endure are the tools that serve a purpose.  Shovels are good at making holes, cars are good at moving people from one place to another.  If you want people to use your website, it must serve a purpose.  However, it is not sufficient for the site to serve a purpose for you, it must serve a purpose for whomever you want to use it.

What Purpose Should Your Website Serve?
And Whom Does it Serve?

There are any number of purposes a website might serve, but let’s take a look at some of the more common …

You’re working with your web developer and you’ve determined that not all your content is for everyone: maybe you want your site to have added value for members; perhaps you handle medical, financial, or other sensitive documents; it could be one of your protections against SPAM bots; it may even be that you like hiding “Easter Eggs” for customers who gather promotional codes from elsewhere in your marketing campaign.

Whatever your reason is for partitioning off a section of your website, you need to decide how secure it will be.

One for All

At first blush …

Just because your visitor has arrived to a specific product page, it doesn’t mean he will add the product to the cart. The product detail page needs to continue the conversion effort that the landing page and the category page started.

On this page, visitors will explore your offer more closely.

In terms of the product, you want to provide:

• A large enough photo (or a link to enlarge)
• Alternative photos if applicable (different angles, colors, etc.)
• Main product features and benefits
• Product options or accessories
• Price, availability, or sale/discount options
• Customer testimonials
• Product warranty/support options

Out of the list above, the product photo may be the most …

Online store category pages are crucial in helping the visitor:

• focus on the items he is interested in
• choose what he wants to learn about next
• guide the visitor one step closer to making a buying decision

We are so used to category pages that we take them for granted… until they are not there. They act like filters, grouping items in ways that make sense to us. They show a list of items with something in common, basic information about the items, and ways to sort the list itself (by price, color, size, etc.).

Category pages answer the following questions:

• Did I choose the right …
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What makes visitors prefer one online store over another? Its simplicity and ease of use. A lot of planning goes on behind the scenes to make a checkout process user-friendly and inviting. Such planning starts with answering key questions about usage and management requirements.

How will you organize your products?
Organizing your products into categories is key. You should consider having products show up in several categories. For example, a book can show up under “fiction”, “mystery”, “bestsellers”, “gifts”, and even “books under $20″. The key is to put yourself in the shoes of …