Ecommerce websites are booming these days, and for good reason: they can make a lot of money. Whether you’re selling physical goods, virtual products, or services, you need an online foundation that can handle your lofty goals.
This post covers what are generally the first few steps for an ecommerce website, specifically the beginning of the planning phase leading into the building phase. The steps outlined here should give you a solid bird’s eye view of what to expect if you decide to start an ecommerce business.
Identify your required pages
Generally, there are a few standard pages/templates required to run an ecommerce website. Identifying which of these you need and what exactly they’re supposed to do is the most important step to starting a great ecommerce website.
Below, we describe some of the normal pages specific to an ecommerce website, and what you can expect to find on them. Choosing some or all of these to include in your website will help you strategize the remaining pieces needed to get it up and running.
1. Shop Page
The shop page is the primary page on your website to display your products. It’s the backbone of your ecommerce website. This page is where people will come to see the list of products available to buy. This is also usually the page/template where sorting is done. Any product categories, options, and standard meta/details should be easily searched for and sorted accordingly. This is much like the page that is displayed when you search on a website like Amazon.
Often, this is also the first place users will go on your website after arriving at the home page. Presentation and usability are important to help increase your total sales when everything looks good and functions correctly.
2. Individual Product Page
The second most important part of your ecommerce website is the page that displays the images, details, reviews, etc. for a single product. You can think of this as a product page on Amazon. This is where the final decisions happen for choosing quantities, choosing options (sizes and colors), and adding products to your cart.
3. Cart
Obviously, having a cart page is integral to the purchase process. A cart page allows people to review their order before going to checkout, change quantities, and even remove items from their cart. This is also a common place to accept coupons and display the effect they have on the products in the cart.
4. Checkout
Checkout is the final step in every buyer's journey. The checkout page is a requirement on every ecommerce website since it facilitates and finalizes product purchases.
There’s usually a form on this page that allows the customer to fill out information such as their name, shipping information, company details, and any final notes for their order. These details are saved and are used to determine who and where to ship a product to.
The key detail about these pages, however, is the ability to enter in your credit card or PayPal information for the purchase. Another detail that you might see is the ability to login to an account at this point, which would allow the user to used saved details for their checkout instead of having to enter them in any time they return to the website.
5. My Account
Many ecommerce websites are built with the ability to log in and save your information for use around the website. Doing this can help expedite the checkout process and can save lots of headache for the customer. You can also use this sort of system to track who is buying what, how many times, and even record which coupons are being used when they checkout.
Generally, these memberships are based on a simple email and password combination that allows them to access a small members-only area where they can manage their details as well as view their current and past orders. Allowing people to track their packages is a great step to making the processes of sales and shipping easier for you and the customer.
Identify Your Required Functionality
Now that you have an idea of the standard pages required on an ecommerce website, we can examine the exact functionality generally seen in each of those pages. Customers will expect certain tools and standard experiences to be available on an online store. We will look at what those are for each page and best practices to follow for implementing them.
1. Shop Page Functionality
Search: Search is a huge part of an ecommerce website and should be required across every page on the website. We are covering the search functionality here under the Shop Page, but keep in mind, this is something that can and should be used anywhere on the website.
A search bar can have simple or advanced functionality. Depending on your needs, you can make it search for anything from names and titles, to skus, sizes, descriptions, and other meta. We use the search bar in combination with the next element: a filter.
Filtering: Filtering is vital to the online shopping experience. The ability to sort exactly what you see from your search results is a customer expectation. Standard types of filters include product details like categories, prices, sizes, colors, brands, and almost any type of information you could use to distinguish one product from another.
You will often see filters in two styles. The first is a standard link system that you see on smaller ecommerce websites that don’t need a robust search/filtering system. Usually what is offered on these websites are simple lists of categories and attributes that can take you to different sections of products. The drawback with this type of filter system is that it doesn’t allow you to combine attributes or easily toggle between them; you’re stuck sorting by one detail at a time.
The second filter style seen on larger ecommerce websites is called a dynamic filter. Dynamic filters allow you to combine and choose specific details you want to search for within products. Amazon is a great example of a robust sidebar filter system that allows you to sort by almost anything the product information might contain. This type of filter will be easily expandable if in the future you decide to add more attributes to your products that you would want to use to filter more specifically.
2. Individual Product Page Functionality
Images & Descriptions: Images and descriptions are an important aspect of the selling process. If customers don’t know exactly what they’re purchasing, there can be lots of confusion and frustration for them and you. Often, users will avoid websites that don’t give them at least one image to display what the product is.
Product Options: The individual product page is where customers choose options about the product they’re purchasing. Standard options include details like sizes, colors, and even the addition of production details to the product, like a number on a shirt or a name on a hat.
Reviews: When you visit an ecommerce website, you will usually see customer reviews for the products you’re viewing. Whether it’s in the form of numbers, stars, or text, reviews are a great way to ease your customers’ minds on any concerns or questions they may have with the product, which leads to more sales for you!
Add to Cart: Finally, and most importantly, there is the add to cart button. This button is what someone clicks after choosing all of the product details to add into their cart. Every product will have a button like this and will usually have a quantity option next to it.
3. Cart Functionality
Order Review: Customers need somewhere to review their cart before placing an order. What you usually see here is a list of every product currently in the cart, along with their quantities and prices. Other details that may be shown here include quantity discounts, who/where the item is going to be shipped from, and any special details that may have been added by the customer on the individual product page.
Coupons: The cart page is also a great place to have your customers enter their coupons. Along with an order review section, you can show exactly how the products and their prices are affected by the coupon, as well as how any special offers like free shipping might be applied.
Upsells: On the cart page, it’s standard practice to show other items related to what’s in the customer's cart, either to try and sell more or offer them items they may have forgotten. Examples include batteries for electronics or shoelaces for shoes.
4. Checkout Functionality
Customer Billing/Shipping Details: The checkout page is the last step on the buyer's journey. At this point, you want to collect the details for billing the customer and shipping to them. There are separate forms usually for billing and shipping details since they can often be different. Collecting this information is essential to complete the order.
Credit Card or Billing Account Details: This is the last step in the purchase. The customer can enter in their credit/debit card details, Paypal account info, or any other billing service offered.
It is possible to fill in these account details automatically for a customer using data they may have previously entered. This would require our next set of functionality.
5. My Account Functionality
Sign Up/Log In: If you choose to include membership/account abilities on your website, you’re going to need these. A sign up page/form that allows someone to register using their email and a password (or any other details you might want) is the first step in the user account process. After creation, they’ll need someone to manage their details.
Manage Account: Provide a page that allows your users to enter their normal information like addresses, names, and payment info. You will have forms on this page to collect the information. This page is also the place to provide your customers information on their current and previous orders. The ability to track details like order date, shipping date, and order costs is a major plus to any ecommerce website and adds another level of control for the user.
Log Out: Finally, and simply enough, the user needs the ability to log out of the website when they’re done. This is for security reasons and essentially ends the shopping session for the user.
Summary
Now that you have a general understanding of both the standard pages on an ecommerce site and the functionality that is usually provided on those pages, you can start the first real step for implementation.
Determine which of the pages are essential to your website. Perhaps you don’t require account functionality, which can be the case if you aren’t a large company. Or maybe you want to simplify your website and have the shop page as the homepage. These considerations are specific to your users and your website.
Planning the functionality of your chosen pages is integral to the design and development process. Deciding what of the functionality we’ve covered is important to your website. You might not need all of the elements listed in this post; considering this before starting to build the website will prevent confusion on what needs to be implemented where. You can also take this chance to consider which features you want in the future and how you could develop to potentially include them in the future.
Using the considerations presented here, along with anything you may have experienced in your own online shopping, you can create realistic goals for your website. At this point you could take your ideas and ask others for opinions, or even start development if you feel ready.
A great website starts with great planning. Knowing what you’re getting into before starting is essential to a good end result.
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