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eCommerce sites - things you might want to think about

eCommerce sites

If you’re thinking about developing an eCommerce site, one of the first questions you’ll probably want to ask us is “how much will it cost?”. We find it difficult to answer that question until we know how much functionality you want your eCommerce site to have.

So, here are some questions that will help you define some of the basic bits of functionality we’d need to build. Once we know this, we can judge how complex (or simple) the build of your site is going to be - therefore helping us answer your question.

Products

Approximately how many products do you think you’ll want to list on the site?
Will there be variations of each product (for example by size or colour)?
Do you have product images? Are there multiple images per product?
Do you already have a product database? If so, what format is it in?

Logistics

Will you be delivering to the UK only, or further afield? Are there any special considerations when calculating delivery?
Will you want the site to support multiple languages or currencies?

Integration

Will you want the website to link to your stock control system so that the two talk to each other ( i.e. when something is bought online it automatically reduces the stock levels on the stock control system)? What format is your stock control system in?
Would the back-end system running the website have to integrate with any other internal systems, such as Sage or EPoS?

Functionality

Do you want the website to make suggestions to your customers about alternative products they might be interested in, or other relevant products based on their purchases?
What factors will you want your users to be able to filter your products by? (For example, do you want them to be able to narrow their search by brand, product type, size, price?)
Will you need the site to store user profiles, and attach details of their purchases?
Will you want the site to allow registered users to save wish lists?
Are there any specific features other than users viewing/purchasing products that you would like on the site?

Payment

Do you already know how you want to process payments? For example, you have the choice of using an external service, such as WorldPay or PayPal, to process payments (this requires your customers to leave your site and go to the payment site in order to process their payment - they may also have to set up an account with the payment provider).
Alternatively you can set yourself up with an online Merchant ID and a secure payment provider so that users do not leave your site to process a payment. See our article on online payments.