If you’re looking to start your own eCommerce website, you’ll quickly discover that there are thousands of different features out there to consider. The more you think about them, the more confusing things become. But it doesn’t have to be that way! Here’s how to figure out what features your eCommerce website needs so you can get on with building it and selling your products online.
Step 1: Use the Current Site as a Baseline
When building a new website, it’s important to understand what features you have now, but also how your current site operates and what users are seeing. If you don’t have a developer on hand, or don’t want to hire dedicated developers, then consider using Google Analytics or User Testing (for mobile devices) as your baseline. Track overall activity and user behavior patterns of regular users. What do they search for most often? Are they having trouble with certain pages/sections of your website?
Step 2: Define Your Target Audience
You can’t just find developers. If you want a trustworthy developer, you need one who knows about and has experience in your specific industry. Ideally, look for an experienced ecommerce development company in your area. If you have no idea where to start, check with an agency that specializes in web development for small businesses or other clients like yours. Ask them if they have a local partner they work with often. Then reach out and see if that person would be interested in meeting up to learn more about your project.
Step 3: Get Feedback From Fellow Business Owners
Once you have a professional post, get feedback from others in your niche. Ask them if they would link to it and ask them why they liked it or didn’t like it. This helps you build relationships with other people in your niche as well as help them see you as an authority in your field. It also gives you valuable insight into what they are looking for when reading articles.
Step 4: Review Competitor Sites
After you’ve selected a title and created your outline, it’s time to start writing. This is where a solid outline comes in handy because it can help you stay on target and keep your post organized. When researching your topic, look for online resources that pertain directly to it; if none exist already, consider writing a new piece. If there are sites out there with solid information about your topic, choose three or four as references so that you can cite them in your post as you get started on content creation.
Step 5: Checkout Best-in-Class Plugins
Finding best-in-class plugins is one of the easiest ways to start increasing your WordPress speed right now. But, before you jump in and start installing all kinds of plugins, ask yourself a few questions: do I really need it, will it slow down my site and is there anything else I can do instead? Also, as a general rule of thumb, don’t install more than 2-3 plugins at a time.
Step 7: Identify Unmet Needs of Customers
One way to make sure your solution is needed by customers is by figuring out their unmet needs. Unmet needs are problems that customers want solved, but that aren’t currently being solved with a product. This could be because there isn’t a good existing solution or because companies don’t seem interested in solving them. Either way, it signals an opportunity for you as an entrepreneur.
Conclusion
Hiring dedicated developers may be expensive, but it means your company can leverage specific skills and in-depth knowledge of specialized technologies. This investment will likely save time in the long run and could even pay for itself if you’re able to generate more revenue from your site as a result of what you’ve built. Hiring an eCommerce development company with proven capabilities will ensure that you have a clear picture of what features you need and have everything set up properly right out of the gate. A good firm will take care of any future changes or updates so your business can focus on its core activities. Don’t let choosing developer resources hinder growth: Hire someone who knows their stuff!
