The Blueprint Project

The Blueprint Project:

A customer walks inside the store, browses through products and shelves, sees items, inspects, considers the prices, prefers a merchandise and takes it toward the cash register to pay. If you would like to sell your products online, then your site really should be enabled for e-commerce, where you need to have these features:

You must provide a good amount of information and product description like sizes, dimensions, colors and comparisons to similar products. It should allow the customer to pick out a product, obtain a clear pricing and shipping costs on the product, complete the transaction and acquire an order number, and/or invoice confirmation via email. Allow your customer to pick a shipping method.

You must explain to the purchaser if the item is in stock or delivered against order. Ideally, you'll have an email contact or live help if your customer has a question. Above all you ought to respond immediately! If you wish to provide your own live chat and help desk services on your website, specialized softwares are available for purchase.

Ensure your customer service links are large and clearly marked, so your client won't have to dig around to find information.

Offer an ‘about us’ section or a section about your policies. When you've got privacy statements and customer satisfaction policies, your customer will feel better about shopping inside your store.

You most likely want to have customer quotes and references on the storefront page, as well, to let your prospective client know that others are very pleased with your service.

Provide an FAQ with more knowledge about your return-back policies, guarantees, shipping prices and insurance charges if any.

If you are so inclined, you may offer a print catalogue if the customer likes to order one in the storefront and shop from the privacy of their homes.

Do not annoy your customers by presenting items that are marked ‘sold’ or pages that say ‘under construction’ or ‘coming soon’.

Do add new content frequently, so that your returning customers won't be bored by seeing the very same products they saw four months ago.

In case your site has got a date tag or has current references, be careful to change these references frequently to make sure you don’t allow the perception that nobody is attending or viewing your website or blog.

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