Official Digi Donkey Blog: Internet ExpertAdvice, tutorials and tips from a Digi Donkey certified Internet expert. Seven Money Saving Tips - eCommerce Website DevelopmentOne of our Internet Experts has put together this list of things you can do to save time and money on the design and development of your eCommerce website. Rename Your ImagesFirst, rename your images to what they are actually pictures of. Instead of "P45347.jpg" rename it to "yellow-hat.jpg" or whatever your picture happens to be of. When renaming images make sure to not use leave any spaces (use dashes instead) and only use letters and numbers. This will make it easier for the designers and the easier you make their job the quicker your stuff will get done. Also, deliver large versions of all your images to the designers. Let them resize your images for you. This way you'll have high quality images on your site and the designer won't have to take extra time working with tiny, junky images. Put All Your Products Into A SpreadsheetEvery cart requires the same information so make sure you create a spreadsheet with all your products in it whether it's 10 or 10,000. If your products are in Quickbooks or some other type of proprietary software you need to export it into a spreadsheet that anyone can open and read. At the very least have this information organized into columns:
Now this is a bare minimum of the info actually required but just getting this stuff into a spreadsheet can save you hours upon hours of billable production time depending on how many products you have. Have Real Time Shipping Info (Dimensions And Weights) ReadyIf you are going to be using real time shipping quotes have all your box dimensions and weights written out and ready to be handed over to the designers. DO NOT just give some of the info and expect them to come up with your shipping rates for you. This can be a real time killer, especially if you have thousands of products with different shipping rates for each. It's your responsibility as the business owner to know what your shipping situation is. Have it ready to save money. Call the carriers you will be using and have them help you come up with your rates. They'll do it for free, your web designer will bill you for it. Create An OutlineOnce you have all your products in the spreadsheet create an outline just like the ones you did back in grade school. Organize your products into categories, sub-categories and sub-sub-categories. Make sure that every product, product option, category, and sub category is accounted for and organized. This is another time killer if not presented to the designer in a clear organized manner. Write Descriptions For Your Categories And Sub CategoriesWrite a paragraph describing the items in your categories and sub categories. Here is an example. Olive Oils Address Any Option Based PricingIf you have certain products in which the price will be determined by the options the user selects then you need to write that out for the web developers. Here is an example. Silver Rope Necklace Write Down Any Volume Ordering DiscountsIf you are giving any discounts for volume orders write down the product name as well as a description as to what the discount is. Make it as clear as possible. For example if it is a product price discount Tennis Balls If it is a volume based shipping discount. Box of Nike Black Golf Balls Important Info About Multi Product ShippingIn the example above, note that the price is $7.95 per case. That means if someone orders 10 cases you would ship out 10 boxes. Sometimes, you may be able to pack multiple items into 1 box for shipment. This needs to be clarified by you to your designer. It is easier, and less expensive to you, to set up shipping each item separately. For example, you could ship up to 40 tennis balls in one box but if they add in a baseball glove then you can only ship 20 tennis balls. You have to remember that your shipping will be based on a mathematical equation that is assigned to each product. While it is possible to write a script that calculates each possible scenario of shipping based on your total inventory and size of your shipping containers the cost to do so may not be reasonable. Try to simplify your shipping as much as possible to avoid unnecessary production costs. Website Management System Key FactorsChoosing the right website management system for you can be a little daunting. This is especially true if you are not very "techie" in the first place. Most likely, the web design companies giving you quotes will offer you a website management system that they are comfortable working with. But is the system they choose going to be the best one for you or your staff? We'll start off by assuming that you are going to have your website built by a professional web designer. The designer will set everything up and then turn the website over to you to manage yourself. At that point, in theory at least, you should be able to login to your control panel and start working on your website right away. The learning curve required to do this will be determined by which type of website management system you choose. Here are some of the key things you need to look at when choosing a website management system.First, is it easy to use? How easy is it for a your average office worker, that does not know anything about web design, to add pages, remove pages, add photos and links. Do you need to read a 100 page instruction manual to figure how to edit text or is the system designed to be user friendly. The problem with most of the systems like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal is that they were designed for web designers and not the average person. They are bloated and have so many unnecessary features that performing simple tasks like adding and removing pages can be a nightmare for someone who is intimidated by computers in the first place. In the hands of an experienced web designer these systems are great but in the hands of your average business owner they are considered too intimidating and the business owner usually ends up hiring the web designer to make their updates for them anyway. The second thing you should consider is your budget. If you have the money, consider having a website management system custom built for your business. If you only require simple functions like editing, adding and removing pages with the ability to upload photos then you could probably have a management system built for less than it would cost to have one the more popular website management systems customized for your business. By having a system build specifically for your needs you can avoid ending up with a bloated system that is confusing to use. Everything can be scaled down to the essentials of what you need making the system much easier to use for you. Additional functionality can always be added in. The third thing you need to consider is search engine optimization. Will your website's placement in the search engine rankings be important to it's success? If so, then be careful choosing your system. The 3 major free systems out there WordPress, Joomla and Drupal do a fairly poor job creating search engine friendly websites. All three require additional plug-ins and programming to get them to create SEO friendly websites. Well this additional programming will cost you during the design phase. And even with these plug-ins the websites created with these systems still have issues with validating. Validating is basically checking to see if the website is put together right on a technical level. This is a small factor that is taken into consideration for search engine placement. There are plenty of website management systems out there. Some are more popular than others. Some are free and and some you have to pay for. Make sure you choose the one that's right for you and not your website designer because in the long run, hopefully, you will be the one working with it. |
Internet ExpertSeven Money Saving Tips - eCommerce Website Development Website Management System Key Factors |
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