Before you go in for an eCommerce website, you need you need to make sure that you make a shopping cart checklist which incorporates all your present and requirements. That way, you can be sure that nothing is left out, and your shopping cart website design is perfect.

REGISTER YOUR BUSINESS

To start off with your eCommerce website, you need to register yourself in one of the below business structures

Sole Trader
Partnership or
Company

The next step is to choose a business name, following which you need to register with Inland Revenue for tax purposes. For more details click here.

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GET A WEBSITE / DOMAIN NAME

Once your business name is registered, you may choose a domain name to go with it. Suppose your business is registered as ‘Glen Tailoring’, and glentailoring.com is not available, then you may opt for TailorGlen.com. The idea is to have a domain similar to your business name. However, do not use Glen-tailoring.com, as your audience may omit the ‘hyphen’ while typing and perhaps get re-directed to some other site or get an error along the lines of “the page doesn’t exist”.

LOOK AND FEEL

The look and feel of your eCommerce website design is most important to retain a first time visitor. If your website is difficult to navigate, then your visitors will click away. Apart from the navigation part, there are also other important factors which do matter:

A great looking logo
Multi-browser compatibility
Promotional graphics and hyperlinks to your products
Call to action (CTA) to your important website pages
Search box to help customers search for required information or product on the website
News Updates
Promo banners, to attract audience clicks.
Links to popular products, recent purchases, and suggested products.

All the above points are the essential for making your website look pleasing and easy to navigate.

MANAGING THE OVERALL E-COMMERCE SITE:

PRODUCT PAGES

Your product page is like the heart of your shopping cart website. Your products are the reason why you have a website in the first place. So it must be kept in order. Below are a few suggestions.

Each of the products should have a proper description.
Their specs and sizes must be made available.
The product page must contain photographs of the specific item taken from different angles.
If it is available in different colours, then, customers must be given the option to display product pictures of the chosen colour only.
Social media sharing buttons must be made available so that people may share their favourite product with friends who may be interested too!
There must be an option to comment as well as view others’ comments about the product.
The page must have “Add to cart” option so that the customers go ahead and buy what they want, without much delay.
A “Wishlist” option may be provided, in order to help them plan future purchases on your site.
The availability of your products, as well as the quantity currently available, must also be visible on the product page.
Keywords must be used on individual product pages to increase the search engine visibility of each product.

BLOGS TO ADD VALUE

Your company needs to stand out from competitors. A blog page is therefore very essential to help your website get organic traffic. Your blog articles can help you get a better SEO rank, because of the valuable information you provide to your website visitors. Your blog postings may include the following.

Field specific articles
Company updates or events.
Latest industry developments.

CHECKOUT, SHOPPING CART AND WISHLIST

A Shopping Cart is the most important part of an eCommerce website and the one which ensures bread on the dinner table. So make sure that the process seems like a piece of cake to your online shoppers. Ensure clear display of the price or discounted rate (if the customer adds more items to the shopping cart). Make provision for the promo code, which may be used if applicable.

Once the items are chosen, and the shopping cart is ready, the calculations must incorporate the taxes and shipping charges according to the chosen destination.

The payment section must accept all payment methods and cards. Make sure that the security seal is visible, during the payment process.

If you are dealing with online downloads, then specify the downloading instructions on the product page, as well as your follow up email with the actual download link.

FOLLOWING UP WITH CUSTOMERS

Once a customer purchases a product from your eCommerce store, you may follow the below checklist:

Send a ‘thank you’ email with a picture of the product and receipt.

Ask them if they are satisfied with the product; follow it up with a request for a review of your product.

You may email them your offers for their abandoned shopping carts.

There are many finer points which go into making a successful eCommerce website. Have we missed any? Do let us know your suggestions in the comments below.

You will need ecommerce website design if you are into retail business. Here are some tips to build and manage a successful shopping cart website.

Simplicity

Your business website design must be simple. It should not contain all the bells and whistles like flash animation, background music, etc. Users are accessing your website while on the go; the last thing they want is slow loading flash or a blaring background music. Also, keep your Affordable Shopping cart design presentable, simple and free from clutter. That way, the users will quickly find what they need without delay. Apple.com is the best example of a clutter free site.

Always Respond Quickly

When customers submit an enquiry, you must respond quickly. A lazy response to customer queries is a surefire way to lose them. If they order your product, make sure that a receipt is sent to them along with delivery details. If you are on a vacation, then delegate the job of checking your official email to your employee. Also have a customer support number which is manned during your work hours with a facility to leave voice messages during non-working hours.

Interact with Customers Online

Social Media like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can help you build your own community where you can interact with your customers and fans. Fans can also share their experiences about using your product and post it on your social media page. In fact, positive online reviews especially via social media can add credibility to your brand and help in word-of-mouth marketing. You can also have a blog where healthy discussions take place regarding your subject of expertise. A blog can also have sharing buttons so that a wider range of people can benefit from the knowledge.

Have Customers Comeback for More

Your must keep the company website constantly updated with fresh content. Therefore it is good to have a dynamic website with a blog which is constantly updated with interesting articles, so that visitors keep coming back for more. Also make sure that the blog has a comments section with Facebook and Twitter sharing buttons. You can even run offers like “50% off for a day”. This will create interest and the visitors keep coming back for more. Repeat visits to you website by your loyal customers, may even lead to product sales.

Optimize within Limits

Do not try too hard to optimize your website. Let the content feel natural and not be studded with too many keywords. Let it be interesting and readable. If you try to stuff keywords in every nook and corner, your website will be regarded as spam site and demoted by Google. Remember that the key to top SEO ranking is quality content.

Avoid too many Listings

There is a general view that submitting links to various directories, will cause Google to give you a good ranking. The fact of the matter is that Google actually recognises these web directories as ‘bad neighbourhoods’. If your website is listed there, it will be taken as a spam website.

Build your Mailing list

Have visitors to your website to sign up for a free E-Book. They should be able to subscribe to it by submitting their name and email. Thus you can send out newsletters to your subscribers once or twice a month. Take care not to bombard their inbox with more frequent newsletters. Also have an option for your subscribers to opt out. Thus you can build a community of subscribers with whom you can interact and send special offers on your products.

Customer Service

In spite of the advancement in technology; you still cannot replace the element of ‘a human touch’. Having an online shop is not just about getting orders, counting money and asking the shipping guys to handle the rest. You must have customer support executives who are real and not virtual beings; they must be handling customer calls. Customers may encounter a lot of problems. It could be that your website accepted the payment two times, or probably they ordered two times, or perhaps the product with another color or size got delivered. There are many concerns which a customer support person must resolve. This cannot be done by a robot or any virtual telephone assistant. When customer concerns are taken care of, they don’t mind giving you a positive review, whether it be online or by ‘word of mouth’. This generates trust.

Easy Payment

Make your payment method easy. You could opt for an ecommerce solution like Shopify or integrate your site with Paypal. A successful shopping cart website cannot be build overnight. It can definitely evolve into a success over a period of time, by following the right steps. Do you have any favourite tip for promoting an ecommerce website? Do let us know in the comments below.

The Ultimate Checklist For Your Shopping Cart Website