Are you looking to hire Magento 2 developer? Do you wish to build a light and responsive e-commerce website for your nascent business? If yes, you need to get your head around a few prerequisites that will put you in good stead prior to the commencement of the development phase.
Asking questions will not only induce clarity at your end, but it will make sure to keep your Magento ecommerce development team on their toes. Knowing that the client doesn’t have a technical quotient can sometimes cause some lapses at the development end.
Here’s a List of Questions to Ask When Building an eCommerce Site.
1. What am I getting in the overall website budget from you?
- Once you finalize a budget, you need to know what your money’s worth is.
- Ask your agency to give you a consolidated list of deliverables on the lines of web development, graphic design, UI/UX, content, and more.
- Often you’ll see that your website will be completely naked i.e. devoid of any content or images, which is basically of no use because you can’t go ‘live’ with your business that way. All these details hence need to be cited long before the deal is done, so you can rest assured in your comfortable chair as the developers do the dirty work for you.
2. Does the website come with maintenance as well? If yes, then for how long?
- Most e-commerce business owners don’t possess a technical side. Hence, website maintenance becomes a foregone conclusion.
- What happens in case there are any errors? 404 or 301? What happens if the website shuts down temporarily? How will you make major design and content-related changes? All these questions are critically important internally as they affect your business in ways more than one.
- Hence, be clear about the kind of maintenance you’re getting, and any related terms and conditions, and also pay good heed to what constitutes maintenance.
- You wouldn’t want your agency to mooch off of you just because you’re unfamiliar with the domain.
3. How much hosting space does the website need?
- Inquire about the hosting that your website comes with. Are you getting a dedicated server or a shared server?
- More often than not, e-commerce websites tend to be heavy and involve a lot of product/service-oriented data and images. So in the long run, you will definitely need dedicated hosting space to ensure good speed and to ensure minimum lags on the customer end.
- However, if budget isn’t an issue, you can go with a dedicated server right off the bat.
4. Is the website device responsive?
Does my website work seamlessly with desktops, Laptops, PCs, mobiles, and tablets?
In today’s smartphone age, your website needs to be responsive across all mobile devices i.e. it should basically open like an app does, optimized according to what the customer is looking at in terms of shape, size, design, and the overall user experience.
Not only does this affect the outlook of the customers, but it is also a significant factor in terms of Magento SEO rankings.
5. What will be the CMS of the website?
- First things first, a CMS or Content Management System is a type of application present at the front end which allows an individual (even with limited technical knowledge) to make changes along the lines of content.
- If you own a website, you would want to make changes at will, add or subtract a few elements, and modify existing ones as and when something becomes obsolete without the need for a webmaster for every petty job.
- This is why you need to know the ease with which you will be able to enter data into your website using a user-friendly CMS.
6. Is the website being coded in an SEO-friendly manner?
- Once the website code is done, it becomes almost impossible to make technical changes regularly as it affects the overall look of the website and depending on the gravity of the changes, it might cause downtime as well; which just can’t be afforded at any costs.
- Hence, right from the start, you need to be aware of the developers know the intricacies of SEO and if they’re following the right practices all along.
7. Are you paying attention to the page load time?
- Page load time is the measure of how long it takes for a web page to completely load in a particular browser. Why is it important? Customer experience and good SEO.
- Hence, the code should be light in weight and easily readable.
- This is what can drive customers away in an instant. So, be wary of using heavy images and videos, especially on the home page or specific landing pages.
8. Will the blog be integrated into the website? Or will it be coded on WordPress and then integrated with the website separately?
- The question here is how and not if. This is because, for all e-commerce businesses, a blog becomes a sure-shot SEO strategy, even if the users might not be too excited about it.
- It gives you the opportunity to utilize all your keywords judiciously and come up with engaging original content.
- Since most good blogs are on WordPress, you will need to know if your WooCommerce development service provider gets it integrated with your ecommerce website or not
9. Does the website come pre-integrated with a consolidated payment gateway?
- Last but not the least, this is the most crucial aspect of all. This is the money engine of your website and you can’t afford any lapses here.
- Not only do you need a pre-integrated payment gateway, but you also need it to be robust and high on security (laden with SSL encryption and other important standards).
Do make sure you leave nothing to chance when it comes to your e-commerce website, given it is your virtual money-making face. Asking questions when it matters is always the right way to go; you wouldn’t want to regret it later. Given how complex the art of website making is, the margins for error are too narrow. Hence, be definitive about what you want all the way.
