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There are some features your e-commerce website must have -- and there are some that you may need in the future . By looking at them carefully and getting it right first time you will save yourself a lot of money further down the line Unlimited products and unlimited categories You want the ability to add your own products and menu categories with ease to your site -you don't want to rely on your Web designer whenever something needs changing. Make sure there aren't any restrictions on the number of products you can add , as some companies charge you extra for going over this number. Worse still the system may not be able to do it resulting in an expensive upgrade. Content management It is important that you can change the static text on your website when needed. these are the information pages with text on delivery, terms etc. If you need to ask a web designer to do it, you will have to pay him each time. For this, you need a built-in content management system to change the text based pages yourself. Easy-to-use admin area An easy-to-use admin area is a must as you will be using it every day. You need to easily be able to see new orders, view customer details, add new stock etc and this should all be easy to do via your admin area or control panel. Comprehensive reporting You need to view reports on visitor information such as what products people are viewing etc so that you can make informed decisions on what product to stock, what items you should unstock etc. Comprehensive visitor reporting gives you valuable market data that you can act on to expand your business. Newsletter and e-mail functions With e-commerce it is absolutely vital that you can keep in touch with existing customers in order to encourage them to purchase from you again in the future, by sending out special offers, product updates, newsletters etc. Look for an e-commerce system that has email list functions built in to it. Link manager The ability to add links to other websites with out having to rely on your Web designer is crucial, as building link partnerships is a vital tool in order to obtain good search engine rankings. Look for a system that includes a links manager. Search engine optimisation Speaking of search engines, another vital feature is the ability to add and edit Meta tag information for each page created by the website. These tags are the hidden code that helps determine what your page is about, so by putting the right keywords in the right tags you can give your website a huge boost. Other features There are lost of other features that you can get in your website, such as specials section, bestsellers section, recommended items etc, so do think about what you may want in the future and ask for it to be included it now as it will be a lot cheaper than to get it put in later.
Article Source: http://www.rightarticle.com
Robin Porter is CEO of Arpey Internet which specializes in ecommerce web site design for small to medium sized businesses.
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