The study or briefing of an online store is one of the first and decisive phases to plan the launch of the store, it is essential for its success and profitability.
The web design of an online store is one of the first and decisive phases that retailers must face. It goes without saying that what e-commerce is going to look like is critical to its success and profitability. A poorly designed website with errors will not give the user confidence. On the contrary, with a clean, attractive, and effective website we will have already taken the first step: the consumer will like what he sees.
Some retailers have notions of web design and opt for do it yourself. But in most cases, we must have a professional in the sector if we are looking for a professional image. When deciding on a web designer we must take into account some aspects, in addition to the price, since the price also determines the quality of the work, the lower the amount, the lower the quality of the work. The experience of the professional in the e-commerce sector will be key in our choice. Ideally, you should offer us your design portfolio to learn about your style and way of working.
Once the designer has been chosen, it is time to deliver a design report, known as a briefing, in which all the important points that must be taken into account when starting the project are specified. It may also be the case that we need a redesign of our website to update or modernize it. In both cases, the report is the appropriate way to plan the design of our website, always in communication with the designer, and guarantee that our eCommerce project is profitable.
What should the briefing of our online store contain?
- General information about the store, including the area of activity, products it sells, competing businesses, and types of consumers we target.
- In the event that we are redesigning the website, of course, we must provide a link to the previous online store as well as a list of errors or changes that we want to make with respect to the previous design.
- Logo and corporate style. We may not have decided on both aspects yet. This is a phase prior to web design and of extraordinary importance. Once the logo and corporate style have been designed, it is difficult to change it since it is usually interpreted as a sign of commercial weakness. It is rare for a company to change its logo if things are going well.
- Store content. When delivering the design report to the designer, we must also have the images, texts, banners, and other elements that we want to include on the web-ready. The aim is to shorten the ‘under construction’ phase as much as possible. Nobody wants the popular ‘lorem Ipsum to appear on their website for a long time.
- Select the sales platform, Prestashop and Magento are the most popular e-commerce platforms. If we haven’t decided yet, now is the time.
- Decide the architecture. What categories and subcategories do we want to include in our online store? Keep in mind that these aspects can be modified on the fly, but the designer should have all the information from the beginning to speed up the process and avoid misunderstandings, which are more common than desirable when designing the website of an online business.
- Structure of the homepage. It is one of the key aspects of a design report. Yes, we can also change things afterward, but as in the case of the logo, our clients will get used to the design of the home page and it is not a good idea to change it. We must take into account what are the essential elements for customers and what is the best formula to position them. At this point, the designer should also give his opinion and advice based on his experience.
- In addition, we must provide the designer with a complete map of the website in addition to additional pages such as FAQs, history, conditions, etc.
- We must not forget that today it is almost essential to have a responsive design that automatically adapts our website to the different devices from which the client browses, with special attention to smartphones and tablets.
- Order process and multi-language stores. These two aspects are also fundamental for the client, so we must review them very well together with the designer.
If we clearly specify these ten points to the designer, his work will be easier. The objective of a design report, whether starting from scratch or redesigning an online store, is to offer a plan to the designer so that he can do his job efficiently in the shortest possible time.
If we achieve that our e-commerce has an attractive and usable website, we will be closer to our goal: to achieve profitability for our online store.
Editorial Team
