Ecommerce checklist from Artofdata website designers

Priority Number One

Do you have a merchant ID number? if not you should contact your bank to get one first, as this can take fourteen days to receive, contacting your bank first will be especially useful if you are under a tight deadline. Do not let them try and charge your for this! You only need the number.

Here are a few tips and pointers on ecommerce which should help you plan for your online shop. These are questions our website designers would be asking you after your enquiry to find out more about what you are looking for and what you need.

• Will the pictures of your products be supplied or will we have to hire a photographer? (we have professional photographers available)
• Will our website designers be working to corporate branding guidelines?
• Are our website designers required to design the corporate branding?
• Are our website designers required to design a logo?

Product parameters:

To avoid repetition, we will include product parameters for items that are a single item, but available in different sizes or colours.

Here's an example using a pet shop, you should decide how many tiers and sub tiers you will need for your products, for example:

A one tier system would be if you were just selling one type of animal. eg.

White Mice

A two tier shop (Category | Sub Category)

Dogs

• Bull Dog
• Basset Hound

A three tier system would be if you sold cats or dogs (Category | Sub Category | Sub Sub Category):

Pet

• Dogs
  • Bull Dog
  • Basset Hound
• Cats
  • Tabby
  • Ginger

A four tier system would be:

Species

• Mammal
  • Dogs
    • Bull Dog
    • Basset Hound
    • Wolf
  • Cats
    • Tiger
    • Ginger
• Reptile
  • Lizard
    • Gecko
    • Dragon
  • Snake
    • Cobra
    • Pytho

Other parameters

Whether the item is fragile, the type of postage needed, any extras that may come with the item, or perhaps the method of delivery.

These are just an example using pets, the more we understand your products the more we can avoid repeating the same data when building your shop and product database.

• Is your company VAT registered?
• Delivery: Can a delivery date/time be specified and will you offer express delivery?
• Will VAT be charged on delivery?
• Will you be shipping internationally?
• If so is a postage data table available?
• Will Discount schemes be used?
• Fulfilment: Are different distributors used for different products
• Has an ecommerce transaction company been chosen?
• Do you already have a merchant ID?
• Estimated sales: Will the site be launched in conjunction with TV / Radio campaign
• Is a dedicated server required?
• How many email accounts are required?
• Will video be used on the website?
• Will you be holding confidential customer details?
• If so a (secure socket layer) SSL encryption (a padlock that appears on your browser) will be required
• Is the ability to order out of stock items required?
• We can put all your products individually on google which will lead users looking for individual items to your shop.

You don't need to answer all of these questions just yet, but if your serious about your ecommerce enabled online shop you should plan ahead and incorporate some of these ideas. It will make it much easier to update your site in the future and will keep the cost down.

If we have answers to all the above questions then we will be able to provide you with a detailed quote for your ecommerce project

Click here for a Free Online Quote

One of our website designers or programmers will gladly meet you to discuss your needs on how best to develop your online requirements and how the internet can benefit your company, product or organisation, now or in the future.

Contact

To view our website design portfolio, please call
Pete Lister on 0845 003 1010 or email studio@artofdata.com