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.
