eCommerce Sites: A Checklist of what you need

I help folks start eCommerce businesses all the time, today I am offering a great list to help my new clients and to share with anyone starting a new business online.

Checklist for Starting an Online Business

Use the checklist below to organise yourself before you contact a web developer.

• A .com domain, avoid local domains, or give me a call to discuss when a .ie .ca etc works, it is very rare and also more expensive. The .com domain is recognized as a website, it is a button on some keyboards. Use common sense, avoid hyphens and other poor naming conventions and try to get a .com before you commit to a logo or any branding.
  • You: Buy the service/signup, then send logins to me.
  • Me: Then I setup the .com to point to the hosting and make it live.
  • What: We change is called the NS or name Servers, these enable the domain and hosting to connect and be ‘live’.
• A way to get paid and or invoice users that is legal and tax compliant. You might think next I will say PayPal or Stripe. But I actually always tell folks to avoid them if they can, find a way to take money that is ‘free’ or as close to free as you can. There is a myth that folks will only buy if they can get it right now. Equally as you grow you need to give options, but it is not free to use any middle man.
  • You: Decide on how you will be paid, be sure with online setups you are 100% verified and setup. Signup does not guarantee you can sell online.
  • Me: I then integrate this via WooCommerce or an Invoice software or a custom form, there are many ways to then get paid via the site and off site.
  • What: We do is setup ways to get paid, phone, links, PayPal, revolut etc etc this also is very likely to change so the more you learn the more you can plan later.
• Web Hosting for the CMS you choose. If you dont have web hosting you dont own a website, so if you use Wix/Squarespace etc, stop and consider what you have online. All online presences are rented in a way, but some come with very shady Terms and can surprise a user and take their business down overnight. Most folks I deal with use a managed WP hosting solution, I will let you find your own. But be sure you are not using a local generic host, resellers are the curse of the new small business online. Your local IT company, hosting reseller etc is not here to help they are here to take budget and middle man you. A good understanding of hosting as a buyer is needed by all new business folks online. This is not technical this is the same as reviewing a broadband package for your home or office.
  • You: Send me logins and or a way to gain a temporary access to the hosting to setup WordPress, or if an existing site the /wp-admin/ area can be used to send me a login. Do not send me your logins in plain text via email.
  • Me: I then setup the hosting/CMS and connect your email via the DNS, a common combo I see is SiteGround and Google Workspace or AWS and Microsoft Outlook, same thing but a very different approach.
• Photos of you, your business, your staff, isolated product shots for the shop/products and anything other than stock imagery you can use to make your business real to the use. If you are a 100% online non tangible business this is a challenge, you will need to fake a lot of this and it can be very unwise to use graphics over photos, generating fake shop fronts, POS etc is not advised. Hiring a good photographer can be tough and also way out of budget, many folks can take OK snaps, but it is very rare you can DIY a brand launch.
  • You: Organise your photos into a folder, learn how to then Zip this folder or add them to Google drive etc. All my websites are setup to accept JPG up to 4MB so you dont have to resize, the CMS will. Naming images is also a good idea, its a great practice to start. Do not over do it.
  • Me: I review the images, upload them to the site, we also enable the WEBP conversion via the hosting
  • What: We end up with is well named JPG files for images, SVG files for logos and all served then via WEBP, no need to worry about this, the CMS and host manages it all.
• Video of any sort is always a good idea. Like photos this is all budget dependent but a low cost video can create big impact. It is very rare a poorly taken photo can do the same.
  • You: Decide on a platform, YouTube, Wistia, Vimeo etc, upload your videos
  • Me: I can help and advise but video apps are super easy to use, YouTube Studio for example has a very easy on-boarding for uploading and even some basic editing tools. Most folks once introduced to this are self sufficient after 2-3 video uploads.
• A Sitemap is always a good page to have on a site but also a great way to plan, all sites will have a logical setup, Home, About, Contact, Shop etc. We will define this very early in the process.
  • You: Will start to map out the pages in a document and the products in some sort of spreadsheet. There are multiple free options out there Open Office and Google docs are 2 very common ones. I can for larger sites supply a CSV file that can import into WooCommerce some folks will prefer to manage a large stock list via a spreadsheet. But even for a small company it is a good idea to have all this content in an isolated place, also as a backup.
  • Me: I will map these pages/posts/products as placeholders so your text can begin to fill them. At this point design begins proper. You cannot design pages until content is ready. Blog posts and products have a defined template you can see as blanks to fill in
  • We: Will have the structure for the site and can at this point map out a very real looking mock-up, but you will focus on the actual content. This helps SEO and also focuses the client/owner on the text alone.
• Copy for each page, copy is text, some folks will use a copywriter, which can be very expensive. I always recommend you work on your writing and not be afraid to start. No one beings well or as an expert, the more you write the better the posts will get and the more frequent. The hardest part is starting and then keeping a regular stream of relevant content.
  • You: Supply the text in a digital doc with as little formatting as possible. Avoid adding fonts or designing the document, things like bullet points, bold and italic are fine. Avoid using line spacing to space out things, treat it like an essay/thesis/proposal document, web text should be seen as a document, the T in HTML is text, it is the core of the medium.
  • Me: This is the core of my work, reviewing and building web pages via the text you send, each taxonomy will get some sort of template either inherited like the blog and products, or created with pages.
  • We: End up with a text first website, one built from the core of the SEO rather than a design with text inserted into it.
• Brand can be as simple as a logo, but might be a guideline document, example images, sample designs etc.
  • You:  Send me anything you have via email, logos etc.
  • Me: I can design your logo if needed or repurpose any existing artwork or designs you have.