E-commerce Website Considerations

What to Keep in Mind When Developing your Online Store

With any ecommerce website build, content must be planned effectively in order to build an online store that converts.

Here at Not Fade Away, we are regularly asked for guidelines pertaining to the setup and development of an e-commerce website from the perspective of the responsibilities of the business owner(s) and the unique owner-generated content that is necessary to position an online store for success.

What follows is a loose guideline for topics that business owners should consider for the development of a planned online business before any development work is ever initiated.

Product Categories 

Products on e-commerce stores are usually broken down by the main categories that the product fits under.

This includes the categories themselves and any description that the owners would like to include about the category that would be used as additional information for visitors.

Products may accurately fit under multiple categories within the store, so owners should be aware of how their products will be classified within the product line to provide for the most user-friendly store navigation for visitors.

Product Pictures

High Quality images of company products that will be sold on the company website are one of the most important considerations for any online store.

You have heard it a thousand times before, “A picture is worth a thousand words…”

With an online storefront, nothing could be closer to the truth.

When a visitor arrives at your online store, you have but a brief moment to make an impression on them before they lose interest or are hijacked by social media links or other competitors.

In order to capture your interested visitor’s attention, every online store owner should be committed to producing high-quality images that accurately portray the product line that the business is offering in the overall style and look and feel of the business.

Small business owners should produce product pictures in the same type of consistent style so that products appear consistent throughout the site. Product photos can be in jpeg, png, psd, eps or ai formats.

As a business owner, if taking high-quality images is not your strong suit, consider hiring a professional to snap photos of your products, or let us recommend other possible solutions to make your online store impress!

Product Descriptions 

Written content detailing and explaining the products themselves is critical to every online store.

Descriptions are used for the actual product page that the product will be sold on, which will promote the product to interested parties, as well as on product category pages where brief introductions of the products for sale are promoted as a means to get visitors to learn more and ultimately convert to a paying customer.

Written content for product descriptions should be as descriptive as possible to paint an accurate picture of what the customer will be receiving.

If your product has multiple parts or options, be sure to make a list for your web designer to input on your checkout page that clearly details the specifics of what the visitor will be purchasing.

Another bonus of accurate descriptions of your online product line is that the content that you produce to help describe your online business will ultimately help business owners with long term Search Engine Optimization efforts through the fresh, original content that your online store produces to entice visitors.

Similar to visitors, search engine robots are constantly scanning your online store to see what you have to offer. Make sure that your product descriptions provide both visitors and search engines alike with the type of high-quality content necessary to make your products shine!

Not Fade Away is happy to help with product description editing or rewriting of owner provided content at the owner’s request.

Product Shipping Details 

Another important consideration for any online store pertains specifically to the shipping details that apply to any online store’s unique products.

This includes shipping weights and any possible box sizes that could help in the specification of accurate shipping details for major shipping carriers.

Many of the shopping carts now used in online store development provide for the ability to accurately input shipping options directly into the e-commerce settings, thus allowing customers to select accurate shipping options that can help in conversion rates over time.

Shipping Policies

With any e-commerce store, it is up to the operators of the business to define shipping policies for the business.

This includes the determination of issues such as:

• Will shipping occur on weekends?
• Will the business offer international shipping options?
• Is there any restriction to locations that company will not ship to?
• Will there be a handling or packaging fee applied to orders?
• Is there a free shipping valuation that the business will offer?

Although many shipping options are more obvious, planning ahead with how your e-commerce website deals with shipping can help you avoid challenges as you start to receive more and more orders.

Product Option Ideas 

Does the same product have multiple colors? How about multiple sizes?

If one product will have multiple variables these will need to be established to create the user-functionality on the site.

Shipping Options 

Another important consideration deals specifically with shipping providers that the business will utilize for the online store.

How many shipping options will the business offer? USPS? Fedex? UPS? Other?

Need help?

Please note that these are simply guidelines and ideas for concepts that the business owner will need to consider in the course of an e-commerce website development.

Inclusion or exclusion of any of the above ideas is totally up to the vision that the owner wishes to create for the online store.

Are you looking to build a high-quality online e-commerce website to sell your unique products?

Not Fade Away is happy to help customize any website project to fit the ideas and vision that you may have for your company website. 

Contact us today to get started!