Will you be able to make updates yourself, without the help of a developer?
If you want the ability to make updates to your site content and product information without having to call your web developer every time, discuss this with your web agency at the beginning of your e-commerce site build process. Your developer should suggest an e-commerce solution such as OpenCart that has a user-friendly backend that you can easily learn to update yourself. This will save you time and money in the long run, because you’ll be able to quickly add, remove or edit products and information on your site. Your site will be accurate and consistent, and you won’t get billed by your web company every time you need to make an edit.
How many different products does the site need to support?
Even if you think you’re only going to be selling a few products on your new e-commerce site, it’s important to take into account any product options. If you only have five products but there are 10 customizable options for each product, that will add layers of complexity to your site build. Additionally, you’ll want to think about how your products will be structured into categories and subcategories. These can be added later, but starting your site with a clear category structure will save you time and headaches (and possibly development costs) later on.
Will the store allow room for growth?
Your site should be built on a platform that will allow you to add many more products, categories and other features. What if you want to start shipping internationally? What if you want to bundle products or run promotions? Even if these aren’t your top concerns right now, you may want to do them in the future—and you definitely won’t want to discover that you need to start from scratch and rebuild on a new platform when you need to add a feature.
We hope this post helped you get started on planning your business’ new e-commerce site. If you would like to talk to us about your e-commerce needs, get in touch with us here.
