Critical checklist for preparing your e-commerce website
Setting up an e-commerce website can be one of the most complex and confusing operations even with a good web design team. It involves coordination with different vendors, price negotiations, subjective evalutions, branding decisions, logistic decisions and much more.
Although it is difficult to take a linear approach to creating an e-commerce website we have created a high level checklist of all the aspects of creating an e-commerce website. Many of them need to be done concurrently and will dependent on each other for completion.
So here's the checklist.
- Identify your market space by product segmentation
- Identify your market space by Geography
- Identify your target audience
- Identify your product differentiation or USP factor
- Appoint agency to design a logo, collaterals, packaging etc.
- Create a list of product categories to offer on the website
- Create an inventory list of categorized products you will offer on launch
- Identify and appoint a web design agency to create the e-commerce website
- Take photos of the products or collate them from vendor sources
- Identify a payment gateway to take card payments online. Negotiate terms
- Hire a copywriter to write your website sales content and product descriptions
- Decide and write your returns policy, terms & conditions policy and privacy policy.
- Tie up with courier agencies for logistics and product delivery
- Appoint a web marketing agency for search engine optimization strategy
- Appoint a web marketing agency for social media strategy
- Appoint a web marketing agency to setup PPC ads.
- Setup a customer support team to provide support to customers online
- Subscribe to an online support system, preferably with ticketing and live chat functionality
- Setup a newsletter system to send customers updates and information
- Test your website for usability
- Do dry runs for product delivery and customer support scenarios.
- Launch site
- Review site statistics and customer feedback to continually improve the site.
