Features Your Ecommerce Web Site Absolutely Must Have

There are some features your e-commerce website must have -- and there are some that you may need in the future . By looking at them carefully and getting it right first time you will save yourself a lot of money further down the line

Unlimited products and unlimited categories

You want to be able to easily add your own products and menu categories to your website without having to call your Web designer every the time you need something changed. Check there aren't any restrictions on the number of products you can add too, as there may be hidden costs if you go over the maximum number - or worse, the system may not be able to handle it and you may need an expensive upgrade. Content management

Ideally you want to be able to change text on your website -- such as information about shipping charges, terms of business etc -- without having to rely on your Web designer to do it, who will probably charge you each time.

For this, you need a built-in content management system to change the text based pages yourself.

Easy-to-use admin area

An easy-to-use administration panel is a must have - you will be using it nearly every day. You need to be able to view orders, see customer details, add new products and all this needs to be easy to do.

Comprehensive reporting

You need to see reports on visitor information such as what products have been viewed etc so that you can make informed decisions on new product to stock, what products you should drop etc. Comprehensive reporting gives you valuable market intelligence that you can use to really grow your business.

Newsletter and e-mail functions

It is absolutely vital that you can keep in touch with your customers with the intention of encouraging them to buy from you again. You can achieve this by sending out special offers, product notifications, email newsletters etc. Make sure your e-commerce system has these email list functions included in it.

Link manager

You need the ability to add links to other sites without having to resort to your web designer each time. Making link partnerships is an essential part of getting good search engine rankings so make sure you have this feature built in.

Search engine optimisation

Having mentioned search engines, another valuable feature is the ability to specify Meta tags for each product page you create. Meta tags are the "hidden code" that search engines use to determine what your page is about, so by making sure you can put the relevant keywords in for each product, you will give your site a huge advantage.

Other features

There are many other features that you can get in an e-commerce website, such as specials, bestsellers section, recommended items etc, so think ahead as to what you may need in the future and ask any web designer to include it now as it will be a lot cheaper than to get it put in at a later date.

By: Robin Porter..

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Robin Porter is CEO of Arpey Internet which provides ecommerce web site design for small to medium sized businesses.