Below is a summary checklist I have used during the final review of an ecommerce class I teach. In this class we take a small amount of start-up cash, collectively choose our “widget”, and sell it via an online retail store. This has not been specify written to address all options for online ecommerce however it should still serve as a good path for you to walk through mentally when considering any new project.
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Establishing the Business |
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Incorporation |
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Written Model |
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Retail |
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Product Considerations |
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Legal |
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Weight / Value Ratio |
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Market Conditions |
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Competition |
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Advertising |
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Entertainment / Informational / Community |
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Investment - Money |
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Investment - Time |
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Financial Setup |
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Paypal / Google Checkout |
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Merchant Account |
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Various Skill Sets Required |
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Technical |
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Creative |
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Legal |
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Accounting |
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Sales |
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Quality Assurance |
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Technology |
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Hosting |
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Domain Names |
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Database, FTP and Email |
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Backups |
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Programming Language |
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Integration of Payment and Shipping Modules |
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Site Building |
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Develop from Scratch |
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Use Existing Package |
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Paid |
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Free (i.e. open source) |
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Look and Feel Customization |
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Written Generic Content |
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About Us |
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Shipping / Returns |
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Privacy |
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Conditions of Use |
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Contact Us |
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FAQ |
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Home Page / Landing Page |
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Marketing |
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Written Marketing Content |
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Keyword Targeted Content |
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Meta Tags |
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Product Descriptions |
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Product Imaging |
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Reviews |
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Acquiring Traffic |
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Direct |
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Referral |
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eBay |
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Forums |
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Blogs |
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Froogle |
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Directories |
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Search |
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Paid |
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Google Adwords |
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Yahoo Sponsored Search |
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Microsoft AdCenter |
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Organic |
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |
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Analytics |
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Important Items to Watch |
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Organic Keywords |
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Referring Sites |
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Paid Keyword ROI |
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Setting Goals and Conversion Tracking |
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Top Content |
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Entrance and Exit Points |
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Google Webmaster Tools |
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Broken Links |
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Links To and From |
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Sitemap |
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Robots.txt |
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Page Rank |
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Under marketing you have to get the traffic - but nothing to optimize and convert it.
This is a brief summary that has to be covered in the final 4 hour class of the semester, yes there is a lot of room for improvement but it still serves it’s purpose. I do have “Setting Goals and Conversion Tracking” under analytics, I guess it’s assumed that if you’re monitoring this key metric you’re also working to improve it. Thanks for the feedback.