Place of design

Specifying an e-commerce site can be a bit daunting, especially when you feel like you are aiming into a void. Before you even think about specifications there are a few things to take onboard

Comparison to real bricks and mortar stores
There are a lot of comparisons between high street retailing and e-commerce. But some things are not given. Something’s that seem totally logical in a real shop seem numbingly illogical in an e-commerce store. For this reason, discussing your needs with a designer at the preliminary stages is a very good idea, helping you find your boundaries a lot faster

A really good example of this is stock control. In a real store, stock control is easy, you sell things one by one through a till, and the stock level decreases. If you bundle products together, things are taken “out of stock” bundled and put into stock. With online, retailers just assume the online store packages will bundle and organise stock for them, this is sometimes isn’t the case

Before specifying an e-commerce site, you need to consider

• How / who / where you physically deliver stock – what processes do you need to make your “real” backend systems work
• How are you getting / who is organising / what is you POS material (photography / write-ups)
• What pricing structure(s) you want
• How products are related to each other. Example king sized bed base + king sized mattress makes sense, whereas king sized bed base + single mattress makes no sense at all. Or buy product A, and product B… and you need to buy product C to hold them together etc…

All of these processes above are done on autopilot in a retail environment, in a e-commerce store they need to be fleshed out with rules, detailed ones!

Specification for an online store

Please note that I’m not telling you what to do I am really challenging you to think a bit in the right areas, I am outlining the areas that will need a lot of attention

Marketing
Internet marketing is about
• Understanding & designing for demographics
• Getting right visitors on the site
• Converting visitors into paying visitors
• Encouraging them to come again and tell their friends

The specification for the website ought to include everything, form a code and design view that will facilitate the above… Data collection, method to email customers from the database, on page search engine optimisation, Microsites (if needed) for specific demographics / products etc…

If the designer gets his bit right, the subsequent marketing efforts will be cheaper. You must appreciate that Internet marketing and conversion is an ongoing task, and requires a lot of patience and effort once the site is live. A good designer will give you the framework to make the subsequent efforts easier

Taking money
You will need a robust and secure method of payments that suits your business model – different providers have different rates of fees at different price points. Example if your Average order value is £1.00, you would be unwise to pay £0.50 per transaction. Conversely if your average order value is £500, you would be daft to pay a percentage, especially if £0.50 per transaction is available. Different shopping cart systems will and won’t integrate with different payment gateways. You need to know who you will be wanting to use (and have a backup provider) before you specify the store

Displaying the product
If you sell ring tones, your needs for displaying the product are completely different to selling spanners. The specification for displaying each product needs to be detailed

For example:
• I need this media (audio, video, pictures)
• I need x amount of additional images
• I need datasheet
• I need a category, and quick product description, and a long product description, with a video feed etc..

Think very hard about how you want the product to be displayed – structurally, in an organisational sense and visually. Do you need a product search?

Speak to a designer before nailing this part of a specification down – there are other (search engine optimisation / conversion) reasons why a certain route may be more suitable

Legal stuff
You need to cover your bases in different ways depending on your product – you need to consider the distance selling regulations the data protection act etc. This means you need certain texts freely accessible on your site

Accessibility
How friendly do you want the site to be? Do you want to offer “print me” pages with plain styling, do you want a large text version etc.

Servers
Moving a store that is (for example) hitting a bandwidth issue on a server, to a bigger server, is a royal pain, causing down time – you will need:

• A secure server that is patched and well maintained
• A server with the technologies you require to ensure functionality
• A server that is scalable, especially if video or a high rate of traffic is anticipated

If you haven’t chosen a server, you need to discuss this with the designer. Some e-commerce platforms require certain server setups etc..

Stock
Describe how the site deals with bundles (if you are selling bundles) and what happens when an item goes out (and back into stock)

Usability (for you)
Some e-commerce platforms are a pleasure in the backend, others are a nightmare

Support
What support does your provider give you, is there a manual, is there an online community. Are there prompt security patches

Backup
How do you easily back the whole store up?

Shipping
Define exactly how you ship, what rates, and where you ship too

Example questions:
• Do you ship for the same price to the Outer Hebrides as mainland UK
• Are you offering tracking?
• Are you offering shipping to France?
• Does the price change for next day?
• What if the product is in 2 boxes?
• Do you ship by weight and dimensions?

Be very sure about what you want before you get started. Again different packages have different ideas and systems on shipping

The future
Are you going to expand? If so – what is the plan? Some systems are very scalable, others not so

Integrations
How your store interacts with the rest of your business is important

• Do you need integrations to accounts packages – which ones?
• Do you need integration to a warehouse – if so, what is the specification?
• Do you need a Froogal feed? (Ask us if you don’t know what this is)

There are probably 100’s of other minor things to consider, but this lot should be food for thought

About the Author

Richard King has had many years of experience in real retail management, and many years experience in providing e-commerce for online retailers

Call Richard today to discuss your needs, and find out how easy getting your business idea online can be

0115 845 8953

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