We're going to build an eCommerce store that sells t-shirt. On eCommerce sites, there's always a trade-off to make between building an amazing site that everybody will love and creating a site on a limited budget that will make money. Usually, I'm on the all-the-bells-and-whistles-really-amazing-site side, but I'm always grateful that my ambitions are reined in by the actual business demands. If you're designing and building the site for yourself and you are the client, then you have a challenge--keeping your view realistic while maintaining your enthusiasm for the project. This article shows you a logical way to build an eCommerce site that will deliver what it needs to be profitable. However, when designing your own site, you need to think carefully about exactly who your customers are, what they need, how they want to place orders, and what they are most likely to buy. Consider the following points before you start to visualize or design the site and certainly before you start programming: Getting customers: What will you offer, and how will you expect customers to buy? Will they buy in bulk? Will they make a lot of reapers orders? Will they know what they want before they visit, or will they want to be inspired? These factors will influence how you arrange your catalog and searching as well as what order process you use. A shopping basket is great if people want to browse. If people know exactly what they want, then they might prefer something more like an order form. Precessing orders: How will you turn a customer order into a parcel ready for malling? Your main consideration here is finding an efficient way to process payments and deliver orders to whoever manages your stock or warehouse. How will you give your customers confidence in your ability to protect their data and deliver their purchases on time? Serving customers: Will customers required additional help with products that they buy from you? Do you need to offer warranties, service contracts, or other support services? Bringing customers back: How will you entice customers back to the site? Are they likely to only visit the site to make a purchase, or will there be e-window-shoppers? Are your products consumables, and can you predict when your customers will need something new? After you've answered these questions, you can start designing your site, knowing that you're designing for your customers-- not just doing what seems like a good idea at the time. The example site presented in this book has taken a deliberate generic approach to show you the most common eCommerce techniques. To really lift yourself above the competition, however, you don't need fancy features or Flash movies--you just need to understand, attract, and serve your customers better than anybody else. This article will help you do that.
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