What should you include while building an E-Commerce Website?
You simply cannot think going big on selling your product if you don’t have an ecommerce website. Your web presence is important as far as your profit is concerned. The first step in planning your roadmap is making a plan. You will have to decide on a lot of things before finally going online. Like you need to first decide on what experience do you want your customers to have when they see you.
Mind it! this is a long term planning of about 5 years. You have to develop a clear picture on who your target is? What are their needs and requirements? Do you want an “Information-Only” site? or the one where buyers can but products from your site? If you zero down on these thing in the first place, you will find it very easy, hassle free and quick to develop a site. The next thing that you will have to decide is the budget. Developing a site can be very expensive. Decide on the budget first.
The second thing that you will have to see is the type of product or services that you have. If you are planning a “buy-online” type of website, then you will have to figure out how are you going to position products, how will you arrange shipping and returns. Toll free numbers, active websites and many other customer response modes are also required in this option.
The requirements don’t end here. You will have to keep a shopping card system. This means handling bank payments and credit card options and other payments methods. You will also need to adopt promotional strategies to maintain good traffic. Now we will come to the site outline. A well planned site contains the following:
CONTENT
The only possible way that can attract people to your website is a stunning content. Give your visitors interesting material that can hook them back to your site. once your site is live keep adding and updating the products from time to time to be in the competition.
STRUCTURE
Decide the style sheet and the number of pages that you want on your website. Choose the graphics and other representational requirements like dropdowns, connectors, links etc.
DESIGN
This is the vital important part. This is just like the face or the first impression. IT HAS TO BE GOOD. Its recommended that you must leave this to a professional designer but even if you are doing it yourself, focus on the latest trends, readability, consistency and simplicity. You should do a lot of research on this section. You may surf other award winning sites or sites with good to heavy traffic for inspiration.
NAVIGATION
You should make interactive navigation for your visitors. It should be amusing and enjoyable. Never leave them at a dead end. Also never crowd too many links in one place. This can cause confusions.
CREDIBILITY
Your site should be absolutely credible. The particulars of the company, bank payments methods, your phone numbers, email address, fax numbers everything should be original and working. This builds trust on the users. Ultimately good credibility is going to get you the business.
