The best way to ensure the success of an e commerce project is to make sure to be as thorough as possible with the up-front planning and thought. Here we have some of the criteria that must be considered before embarking on an e commerce project. Many of the items below can be marked as Yes, No, or Nice To Have.

Design

• Will your current web design be used for the ecommerce site?
• Will the ecommerce site be integrated with your current website – will the two be one, or will there be a separate “shop” site with a consistent look & feel to your non-shop site?

Products

• Estimated number of products
• Are products separated by category?
  • estimated number of categories
  • can a product exist in multiple categories
  • Do you have images to be assigned to the categories?
• Will products have images?
• Will products have multiple images?
• How will the images for products be displayed/organized?
• Will products have options (colour, size, etc.)?
  • Will options be selectable within a product (ie the “widget” product will have a dropdown for colour), or will each option exist as a separate product (ie one product that is red widgets, one product that is blue widgets
    • This can have inventory implications if inventory tracking is being done within the ecommerce system. See below.
  • If a visitor changes a product option from a dropdown, does anything about the page change (ie looking at widgets, select blue from the dropdown, and the picture of the product updates)
• Will product inventory be tracked?
  • will products cease to display if their inventory level reaches 0
  • can products with 0 inventory be ordered (back orders)?
  • Does inventory for each product option need to be tracked individually (ie different inventory tracking for each of 10 red widgets and 10 blue widgets)
• Are all products physical items, or are some electronic/downloadable items?

Pricing

• Same pricing for all shoppers?
  • Different pricing for different groups of shoppers?
  • If yes, please describe those differences.
• Is “special” pricing required (ie Christmas special pricing) per product?
• Are special discounts or coupons to be offered?

Shipping

• What couriers do you use?
  • Canada Post, UPS, FedEx, Purolator, others?
  • Are there certain couriers used for different types of orders?
    • If yes, please explain how the courier used is decided.
  • What is the weight range of the products to be sold?
• How will shipping rates be determined?
  • Live rates lookup
  • table of rates
  • rate per $ value
  • other

Payment

• what forms of payment will be accepted
  • credit card
  • paypal
  • cheque
  • bill me
  • other
• are credit card transactions to be performed at the time of checkout
• Are credit card transaction only put through once the order are shipped?
• Do you already have a Internet Merchant Account?
  • If yes, who is it with?
• Do you already have a Payment Gateway account?
  • If yes, who is it with?

Taxes

• will taxes be charged?
• Will taxes be: Ontario GST & PST, Canada GST, outside Canada none?
• Can some products be tax exempt?
• Are there any other tax implications that will have to be dealt with?

Currencies

• In what currency will the store operate?
  • If more than one is to be used, how is that determination determined?
• will the option to see rates in alternate currencies be offered?

Integration

• do products/inventory need to be imported into the ecommerce site from another system?
• do orders need to be exported from the ecommerce site to another system?
  • Customer contact info?
  • Shipments?
  • Other?
• is the site to be integrated with a shipping company (ie Purolator, UPS) for live shipping rates lookups?
  • If your current courier does not provide a viable online integration solution would you consider using a different courier for your web site shipments?
• is the site to be integrated with a payment processor for live credit card transactions?
  • if so, which one?
  • Do you already have an account with a credit card processor?
• Will the ecommerce site be integrated with your current website?
  • Will the two be one, or will there be a separate “shop” site with a consistent look & feel to your non-shop site?

Functionality for shoppers

• wish lists?
• tell a friend?
• recently viewed product?
• recently order products?
• Re-order?
• review previous orders?
• Check status/look up shipping?
• Others?

Attracting Shoppers

• how will shoppers come to the site?
• is the online store a compliment to a bricks and mortar store?
• will you be doing a search engine campaign (seo/sem) in conjunction with the launch of the store?
• Will code be required on the site to track goals tied to web analytics?

Other

• are there other requirements that you have that we haven’t considered here?