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E-Commerce Feb 12, 2020

How to Launch a Successful e-Commerce Website: The Ultimate Checklist

Jane Vyshnova

Jane Vyshnova

CEO

Author

How to Launch a Successful e-Commerce Website: The Ultimate Checklist

Content

  1. Checklist for Creating an E-commerce Website
  2. Conclusion

Buying and selling have come a long way. Online marketing has always been expected to grow; however, the growth rates on the market have surprised many. Today, online marketing can be considered as one of the fastest growing industries. Its current rate of expansion, as people are using the internet for trade, will only continue to rise.

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According to Statista, in research carried out in early 2017, 40% of American internet users purchase from online business several times in one month. The same survey concluded that about 20% of this group bought something on a weekly basis.

The number of e-commerce shops is expected to double by 2020. This means that the online market is among the most promising places to invest. If you know this, you probably understand how important creating an e-commerce website is. Also, moving to the internet will not directly guarantee that your business will flourish. This comes down to how you plan your business and, ultimately, your online presence or website.

According to Statista, in research carried out in early 2017, 40% of American internet users purchase from online business several times in one month

So, what do you need to start a website? In order to have a smooth-running, successful online business, you will not only need the best talent and expertise, you will need enough capital to set your plan in motion. We will look at how to successfully launch an e-commerce website by using a website pre-launch checklist that will work for any business.

Checklist for Creating an E-commerce Website

The best e-commerce businesses have one thing in common. The ability to follow trends and adapt to them, if needed. This means that they should always have a website with innovations that always impress a typical client, compelling them to do more business with these companies.

How do you achieve the same kind of success? You have to understand that there has to be a plan. You need to be creative and have the best in web design. Therefore, we have come up with a website development checklist that can help any developer build a successful e-commerce website. Here are the things to know when building an e-commerce website:

1. Understand your client

The first point on the e-commerce website design checklist is getting to understand the brand of your client. Before you can proceed to the design process, you have to take time to get a clear understanding of the person you are working with. The following ideas are useful:

2. Preliminary stage of development

If you get the approval from your client, you can then proceed to the next phase of web development. This is the design stage that includes the involvement of other developers who can help look for the right design according to your clients’ demands and, when agreed on, all the points:

At this point, you are ready to show the design to your client. Make sure you have designers waiting to work on any changes your client may want to make to the design.

3 seconds rule for online business

3. Start developing

Once you are done with the design process and you have made sure the domain is well set, you can then initiate the development stage. This is a very important point on the e-commerce website launch checklist:

4. Create a logo and hosting account

When you need to brand your e-commerce product or service, you will first need to create a logo; however, if you do not have any idea how to create a prominent one, you can hire top talent designers to help. Also, if you do not want to spend all your money on the company logo, you can use special generator tools to help you design your brand or hire an outsourced team of designers.

Additionally, another crucial step to have your client’s website seen on the World Wide Web is to ensure there are proper web hosting services. Ensure you have already bought services that allow your client’s website to be hosted by creating an account.

5. Deal with content for the website

Outsourcing is very important during this stage. If you have previously assigned tasks to an outsourcing team, make sure you collect them and check the content thoroughly. After approving the content, proceed to add it to the website. Remember that you do not have to add too much content to the web pages. When completed, follow these next steps:

6. Check the quality of the website

Before any product can be released for public use, it has to be tested. Everything has to function as expected. This is also the case for e-commerce website development.

For this stage, you have to consider three features of the website: the quality of the code, the added content, and, eventually, the user experience (UX).

6.1. The code:

The first step is checking the value of your site’s HTML. There are various online HTML validators that can do this for you.

Proceed to check the validity of your CSS or Cascading Style Sheets and improve the quality of your JavaScript. This can be done by using either JSLint or JSHint.

In order to be sure that the website can be viewed globally, you should proceed to internationalize it. Show the business owner the progress you have made so far and make the required adjustments if they are not satisfied.

6.2. The content

Make sure you do not have any copywriting violations with the content you have added to the site. There are many online solutions to this problem. In addition to copywriting issues, check for any mistakes with the written content on websites like Grammarly. In order to save time, make sure your content writers do this job before submitting any content to you.

Additionally, make sure the images have been well incorporated. They must look attractive, be well positioned, and complement the webpage. Edit them further, if necessary. Do the same with any video and audio content.

Because you have added links and icons to the website, test these to make sure they’re all working as expected. Make sure the linked information is accurate and not outdated.

6.3. UX

The only way of being completely certain that the navigation of the website is great, is by putting it to the test. A particular visitor expects that your e-commerce site will provide a great user experience. The steps below will help you analyze the UX of the website. You can then make any corrections if you find mistakes.

Additionally, you can use real individuals and observe how well they interact with the site. Once you finish your test, send the product to your client and wait for their feedback.

7. Check the analytics

This is the first stage of the launch process. The first step is to register the site with, for example, a registration site like GoogleWebmasters. Here are the other steps you have to follow:

After implementing the above steps, proceed to forward the project to the business owner and wait for their approval to continue. If some changes have to be made, carefully address them before moving to the next step.

one second delay for online store will result in profit loss

8. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is a very important tool for big businesses and startups. It is a cost-effective tool that allows your site to get increased traffic. Keep the following points in mind:

9. Website speed and performance

The next step is to test the site’s page speed. It is important to stay above 90 on the scale. A score below 90 indicates slow speeds and you’ll need to put more work into fixing it. To do so:

10. Usability of the website

Your client’s website has to be usable by visitors. You need to test how an individual would interact with the website. Start this process by checking for HTML5 compatibility. This can be checked on various sites such as html5test. After this, your next priority would be the creation of a Favicon Generator for all of your platforms.

After working on compatibility, proceed to make sure that the website is as user-friendly as possible. Let us look at some of the features that every user-friendly website has:

11. Social media accounts

More individuals are joining one or more social media platforms and the general number of users is rising. This means the best way to get more traffic to a particular site is to link it to various social media networks.

This phase of the project can be initiated by creating a link between the site and Google plus and then adding human text. Because your client probably has various social media accounts including, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, make sure you create custom cover images for each one of these social media platforms.

Show updates on your current progress to the owner of site. If everything is just right, they can proceed to make the announcement and make the brand new website available to the public.

12. Security

Your client has invested a lot in their business. It is your obligation to ensure that the site is as secure as possible. The increase in the number of online businesses has brought with it a surge in the number of hackers, as well.

The security needed for a certain website depends on its size. You can find security software that will be suitable for the site by simply doing a Google search. It is important to learn from other sites which have implemented a robust security system. It’s also crucial to always stay abreast of technology in order to uncover the latest innovative ways to secure a website.

Conclusion

It is pretty clear that building an e-commerce website requires a lot of attention to detail; however, the above list will make sure that launching a new website will not be a problem if everything is done right and on time.

It is important to reiterate that the rise in technology will inevitably lead to an increased shift of businesses from brick and mortar stores to online stores. This statement in itself shows that moving online is a very beneficial step for many businesses, and especially for those businesses (such as startups) who are looking for a bigger audience.

If you are considering starting a website for your business, we suggest you contact us. We will be able to work with you on your project and ensure its fruition. We clearly understand the process of making a website and the necessary requirements for the success of an online business!

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