What to look for in an ecommerce website solution.
Will your choice of ecommerce web site work as you expect?
When deciding on the ecommerce web site solution that will best suit your business to sell your goods online, there are a some important things to look for.
Will your ecommerce website load fast and be viewed the same on all web browsers.
Visitors to your ecommerce website will loose patience and leave if it loads to slow or doesn't display correctly. Make sure you have a correctly coded e commerce web site, a good hosting service, and always use images that are the correct size and have been optimised.
How easy is it for visitors to find your products and buy from you.
Visitors to your ecommerce website need to quickly find the merchandise they are looking for. Ensure your ecommerce web site has clear and simple listings of categories and sub categories as well as a usable search box and advanced search page.
How many products and categories can you have.
Some e commerce websites limit the amount of products and categories you can have. Choose an ecommerce website solution that allows unlimited goods and categories, so your web site can grow with your business.
Can you display more than one image of a product and can it viewed larger.
Because online shoppers cant view your merchandise as they would in a traditional shop, you need to have more than one image on your e commerce web site for them to look at. Make sure you can have multiple photos, all clickable to enlarged views.
Can you promote products on the home page.
In a traditional shop, show casing your merchandise in your shop front window is essential in getting customers through the door. Its the same with your ecommerce website. You need to be able show on the home page new products, specials, upcoming products, best sellers and more.
Choose the right online payment system.
Do you really need to accept credit card payments directly on your website, or would a 3rd party payment system like Paypal be better. Make sure that if later you decide to change banks, or offer customers other payment options, your e commerce web site can be modified.
How will you deliver your merchandise and will you ship intentionally.
You will need to display accurate delivery costs, including insurance and handling and decide will delivery charges be based on total weight, or by the number of items in the order.
Do you get in-built marketing tools.
What are your ecommerce websites inbuilt promotion and marketing tools. You need to be able to keep customers and visitors informed about your products, by sending out emails and professional looking newsletters that include images and links, directly from your e commerce web site.
Is your ecommerce website search engine friendly.
Only choose an ecommerce web site solution that is search engine friendly. Some claim to be, but are not. Make sure you can control what pages do and dont get listed with search engines like Goggle. Make sure you, or your designer can alter the sites page Titles and Meta-tags. Make sure your site has its own sitemap.xml and robots.txt files.
