Planning on launching your e-commerce shop?

Maybe you have a small product line or your looking to revamp your current e-commerce business! There’s a lot of moving parts when it comes to e-Commerce, and there are some small details that are super important to plan and figure out. Here are 5 things you need to do before you ever begin working on your e-commerce website whether you’re DIYing it or enlisting a designer! Figuring out these things on the front end will be super helpful for you as you begin building out your online shop!

1. Know how many products you want to launch with.

In order to get a quote for your e-commerce website, you will need to tell your designer how many products you have. This gives an idea of the size of your website and also helps to determine the best design choices for your site. 

2. Add all your products to a spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet should include the product name, the description, the quantity and the SKU number (if you use SKUs for your inventory tracking). Some platforms allow you to upload products directly to the platform to make product entry super easy, but either way, having everything in a spreadsheet makes it super easy to batch all your product descriptions, titles, prices, etc so you could pass this off to a designer or team member to help you add them to your shop. 

3. Create beautiful product images.

Hire a professional photographer, or DIY some high quality product images for your site. If you are going to DIY your own product photos, make SURE you take them in front of a big window OR even outside on a porch so you have pure, natural light vs. artificial tungsten light! Keep your backgrounds as neat and clean as possible. Product photography really makes a big difference when it comes to communicating the quality of your products to your shoppers. Remember, they can’t touch or feel the products in an online shop before they buy, so it’s super important that the product photos make your product irresistible so they HAVE to add to cart. 

4. Get clear on your shipping process.

You need to know how you’re going to ship your products. Are you charging flat rate shipping? Where will you ship to? Are you going to auto calculate by size and weight? Determine this in the beginning so you can tell your designer your plans! If you decide to auto-calculate shipping you must know the dimensions and weight of the product you’re shipping when it’s inside a box. If not, a flat rate may be best! Also, make sure you have your shipping policies written out. 

5. Get familiar with Sales Tax Requirements

You need to know your sales tax rate, and we highly recommend an app like  TaxJar to automate paying your sales tax for multiple tax rates for customers who purchase from you in other states. Make sure you talk to your accountant about remitting sales tax and the requirements for sales tax for online shops and e-commerce businesses. In some states, digital products do not require sales tax, whereas physical products will often require you to collect sales tax. It’s important you know this information. When you use a platform like Shopify, it will automatically calculate the sales tax for your state so that it charges your customers the correct amount, BUT you will want to know the actual process for this so you can be prepared for when you have orders coming in! 

Tackling all these before we begin your Shopify site design will ensure we have everything we will need to know for seamlessly launching your e-commerce website, and you’ll be super clear on the processes and systems you need to have in place for your e-commerce website! Have questions about launching your e-commerce shop? Send us an email (jade@jalexandriacreative.com) or inquire with us here. We’d love to talk through the details with you!

Until next time,

Jade