What to think about before launching your e-shop (checklist)

Thursday 2 november 2023

Are you planning to launch your e-shop? To avoid unpleasant surprises and help you prepare as best as possible, let's take a look at the different elements you will need to think about.



The idea here is not to be exhaustive on every point. Some are (or will be) developed in more detail in other articles on our blog. What we want is to inform you, open your eyes, and introduce you to the facets of e-commerce that you may not have yet thought about.

The elements of your brand

• A brand name
• A domain name
• A logo and its possible variants
• A graphic charter (or at least a view clear of the graphics you want to obtain): colors, font, etc.

The elements of your online marketing

• Social networks: which network(s) will you use for your online communication: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.
• Newsletter: are you planning to send newsletters to your subscribers / customers?

The general pages of your site EXCLUDING e-commerce

Apart from the elements necessary for the sale (product, basket, payment), an e-shop is a complete site which also includes other very useful pages for which you will need to prepare the content (structured texts and images).



At least :

• A home page
• A contact page
• An About page

But also …

• A newsletter subscription page
• FAQ (frequently asked questions)
• A blog page

The elements of your e-commerce

Here we will go through the elements specific to e-commerce. Those who allow you to present and sell your products.

The different elements of your products

• The name
• The main image
• Other images of the product
• The short description
• The description detailed
• Variations (sizes, colors, model, etc.)
• The price (+ possibly the promotional price)
• Available stocks
• Weight and/or measurements of your products (if useful for your delivery system)

Means of delivery

How will your customers receive their purchases? How will you deliver them?



This point deserves your attention...

• Collection from your home (store, workshop, restaurant, caterer): locations and times of collections
• Home delivery by you: what will be your delivery times
• Home delivery by post or another supplier (DPD, Mondial Relay, DHL, etc.): you will have to choose your suppliers taking into account the needs of your customers but also their offers and their prices
• Delivery to relay point

Also think about the shipping costs that you will charge your customers

• Fees calculated based on actual orders (weight, volume, etc.): this is undoubtedly the solution that will be the fairest for you but it will also be the most complicated to implement
• Flat rate fees: a single delivery rate (possibly several packages depending on the orders or the destination of your shipments)
• Free fees from a certain amount

Payment methods

• Payment by bank transfer
• Payment against delivery
• Online payment (direct)

If you can set up payment on delivery or payment by bank transfer, online payment will undoubtedly be the most efficient. The order is paid for before being sent, giving you peace of mind.

Please note that these online payments apparently take place on your site. But in reality they go through secure systems specially designed for this and your customers' payment data are in principle not collected on your site.

The best known systems are PayPal and Stripe but there are others like WooPayments (specific for WooCommerce), Mollie, etc.

Legal elements for your site and your activity

• Privacy policy (GDPR)
• Cookies policy
• General Conditions of Sale
• Delivery and returns

A little technique

Don't forget that to build your site you will also need to choose a content management system (CMS). This is the software that will allow you to build and manage your online business.

The best-known CMS for e-commerce are Prestashop, WooCommerce for WordPress, Shopify and Magento.

Furthermore, all of the files on your site will need to find a place with a host.

Your site traffic

To generate traffic to your site, you will have several solutions:

• Free natural referencing (SEO)
• Paid advertising referencing (SEA)
• Communication on social networks (free or paid)
• Newsletters
• “Real” events during which you can make yourself known

If you want to analyze your site's traffic, you will need to connect it to a tool that allows you to study its data. Most often this will be Google Analytics.

In conclusion

If you had the idea of making an e-shop this morning, without any experience, you might be a little discouraged by this blog article and the work that lies ahead. However, we reassure you, nothing is insurmountable. You just have to get started and take the learning curve one step at a time.

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