Planning your website is the first and the most responsible step on a long way to a success on the net. First of all make use of your online competitors(strange as it may sound). Take a look at sites related to your products and make a deep analysis of its content and features. Try to write it down what you like and what you dislike in their functionality and design, ask your colleagues, make deep market research and outrange failures to avoid and features to implement in your online store.

Anyway, here are some basics that MUST DO:

Web Design. Do never think that you visitors will not notice you design! It’s the firs thing that your potential customer sees when he lands at your page. What would you think of mortgage company or real estate agent selling through website that was coded in Frontpage in 5 minutes by a 12 year old ‘hacker’ Probably you will say: ‘Damn SCAM!’. The same with your visitors. Sure its better to make original and eye catching custom design, but if you have limited budget it is always possible to get a pre-designed template and save a bunch of dollars and weeks of time and still get the result! Though lets not hurry, we will get back to it with much more details.

Hosting Provider. No serious online business solution can be imagined without reliable hosting providing company. What’s the use of online store if it is not open to all visitors 24/7? While choosing hosting provider do not be shy to ask some questions about their connectivity, datacenters location, online support backup, online chat and ticketing system. If they provide 24/7 support check them up at night, ask questions on the software they use, on users CPanel. The more you will ask the less problems you will have in future.
Online Customer Support Service. This will really help you to increase you online sales and keep a contact with your customers. People really trust you more when they see human presence on the other side of the wire. Stupid questions responding service(sure we are kidding) will bring you as much income as your discounts and all other advertising methods, customers like interactivity! We will get back later to support software and outsourcing support services.

Search Engine Optimization. We know guys who went a really long mile trying to cheat Google and Yahoo to attract more visitors to their sites, but all artificial technical methods sooner or later fail. That’s why the only receipt we recommend is persistent and logical content improvement and development. Though still there are some laws to follow. You can get more information in further articles.

Ok. So lets get the hands dirty.