As the worth of the eCommerce global market is about to reach 5.4 trillion USD in 2022, you might have the temptation to start your own e-business. But you’re unaware of how to set up your eCommerce store.

Publishing your website is quite overwhelming, especially if it is an e-commerce one. Since your business is at stake you have to consider numerous things. One of the ways to go is to have a checklist with you that will help you set up your small eCommerce store.

To help you with that, here we have curated this 5 point eCommerce website checklist for 2022 that will work as a guiding source for you!

5 Point Ecommerce Website Checklist

Opt for the Right Platform

The biggest question before launching your eCommerce site is ‘which platform will be right?’ There are various options in the market for building websites. However, it is better to choose a platform that is specially made for eCommerce. For this, both WooCommerce and Shopify are pretty decent options.

Nonetheless, here are a few other things that you must consider:

• The website building platform must have a proper business management system.
  
• Go for a platform where you can scale your ecommerce business easily.
  
• Assess the platform for data protection and security it provides.
  
• Check the technical support they provide.
  

Select a Minimalist Theme

The theme of your eCommerce store works as the physical shop of your brand. It needs to be appealing and uncluttered since you do not want to cause any inconvenience to your customers. Your goal must be to provide the customers with a smooth shopping experience. Therefore, the ideal theme is one that is minimalist and easy to navigate.

Here’s how you can select a minimalist theme:

• The theme must represent your brand image, goal, and niche.
  
• Its design should be simple and easy to navigate.
  
• It must be lightweight and responsive.
• Check the theme’s compatibility with different plugins and also browsers.
• Perform the speed test to check whether it is speed-optimized or not.

Prioritize User Experience

If you want to scale your business, you must strive to provide an exceptional user experience to your customers. Ecommerce not only includes offering good products and services, but you also need to provide your customers with a trouble-free shopping experience at your website.

Here are a few key considerations for improving your website for user experience:

• Test your eCommerce website for mobile friendliness.
• Ensure that your website is speed optimized, and it should not take more than 3 seconds to load.
• There should be lesser layout shifts so that customers do not end up clicking some other product that they didn’t intend.
• Your site must not take longer than 0.3 seconds in responding to a user query.
• Must insert the customer feedback or reviews section.
• Your e-store should provide a safe browsing experience to visitors.
• Provide customer support via live chat.

Set up Checkout, Payment, and Shipment Structure

The final and most important stage of shopping is checkout. This is when the site visitor has finally decided to buy from you and is going to place the order. Now, you do not want the customer to abandon the cart and leave without purchasing. Therefore, you must provide an effortless and straightforward experience at the checkout for payment and shipment.

• Must include multiple shipments and payment methods.
• Provide safe and secure payment options.
• If you have to sell in different countries, include the currency converter.
• Include a tax calculator at the checkout.
• Provide a section where customers can add special instructions for their order.

Follow the SEO Best Practices

Search engine optimization for eCommerce stores is as essential as advertising your brand. Having a good SERP ranking poses you as an authoritative brand and builds trust among the customers. The most crucial SEO requirements include the following:

• Use compressed videos and images of products.
• Ensure that your eCommerce website has the ‘HTTPS’ URL.
• Test your e-store for speed and mobile friendliness.
• Make sure your eCommerce store does not use too many intrusive pop-ups.
• Use optimized images and product titles.
• Your website must have a proper sitemap that helps the search engine crawlers.

Final Thoughts

The E-Commerce market is rapidly growing and becoming competitive. If you want to launch your e-store, you must know all the requirements for setting up the eCommerce website. We discussed the 5-point eCommerce website checklist here to give you an idea about the basics of eCommerce sites.

These five things include opting for the appropriate eCommerce platform for your business, selecting a theme that is lightweight and easy to navigate, and how you can improve the user experience. In addition to that, you must have proper channels for payment and shipping, and the checkout should be a seamless process. Lastly, you have to review the SEO techniques for ranking your site.