What features should an online shop have?

[russellhancock]

Hi all,

I am currently developing and improving the following site and wanted to get the general consensus on what features a shopping site should have.

I am thinking of creating a "save basket" option and also improving the search facility but what else should an online shop have?

Any ideas don't have to relate to this site, but hey a few hints never hurt!!

the site is:

http://www.moneyboxshop.co.uk

Cheers

Russell

 

[Foamcow]

I am developing a low cost shopping site for someone at the moment using ZenCart.

I chose to use ZenCart due to time constraints and the fact it offered the following features (that come to mind) amongst other more standard features

[ul]
[li]Newsletter management[/li]
[li]Gift Voucher facilities[/li]
[li]Wishlists[/li]
[li]Tell a friend[/li]
[li]Product reviews[/li]
[/ul]

Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[manarth]

I like it when the site saves my basket for me automatically: I'd never go looking for a 'save basket' function, but if I put some things in a basket and they're there the next time I come back, I'm happy!

<marc>

 

[t5amec]

is that possible without having a log in account? i suppose it could be done with cookies, but only available if Cookies are enabled.

I think on your shop, you shouldn't have a nav on the front page for every item, you should put them into catergories, then subbies.

Make Sense? I hope so (-:

 

[Foamcow]

I forgot to mention...

"People who bought this also bought...."


And something that tracks how many times each product has been viewed etc.


Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web design and ranting
Toccoa Games - Day of Defeat gaming community
Target Marketing Communications - Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations
"I'm making time

 

[GUJUm0deL]

I agree with everyone above. But remember if you collect the payment info on your site you need to make sure its behind a secure page (httpS as opposed to http), and your dB is protected from hackers and scammers.

The adding of products automatically has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages is that the user doens't have to manually add the products to the cart if they wish to buy. The disadvantage is that some users (and that includes me) might think the site is tricking me into buying products I dodn't want to. Just because I veiw the product doesn't mean I want to buy it. And by automatically adding the product to the cart implies that the user does. You will get many complaints about fraud.

Keep one thing in mind when developing any website: treat ALL your users online as idiots. Being a web developer for 6 years has taught me that people will always surprise you about the level of their common-sense.




____________________________________
Just Imagine.

http://www.imajinarts.com

 

[imstillatwork]

I like it when the site saves my basket for me automatically:"

I'm pretty sure he means saves the list of items that he clicked added to basket, but did not check-out. So when you return to the site later, your cart has items in it, and you don't have to go search and add them again.

not that if you view item details the item gets put in your cart automaticly.