e-commerce worksheet

Overview
This worksheet is designed to help focus your efforts when building or redesigning an ecommerce website
There are many other factors to consider during this process, but this worksheet focuses on the high-level
critical factors that will organize your thinking and get you moving in the right direction.

For additional resources including our complete e-commerce project planning guide, visit
www.atlanticbt.com/expertise/ecommerce

Objectives
Why are you designing or redesigning your site? How will you define success?
What metrics do you use? Some ideas are: increase total sales, increase profit and reduce inefficiency and labor,
improve the time visitors spend on the site.

OBJECTIVE SUCCESS
Example: Increase total sales $400k or 20%

1.

2.

3.

Features of Technical Requirements

Your features and technical requirements will help determine which platforms or service providers are the best
fit for your requirements. Using the broad technologies below, indicate if you have a particular preference for the
technologies that will be used to build your site. If your organization already has expertise in a technology set, you
should indicate that preference.

Preferences Technology
LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP)

Microsoft (SQL Server, ASP/.NET)

Java (Oracle, Microsoft, MySQL, or other DB’s)

Ruby (Ruby on Rails with various DB’s)

Other Technologies (Specify):

ecommerce Worksheet 1
This list of features comes from the Magento platform for their community (free) edition. Magento has one of the
widest feature sets for an out-of-the-box shopping cart available. For each category check the most important or
critical features for your requirements as well as adding any requirements you have that aren’t listed.

Marketing, Promotions and Conversion Tools Search Engine Optimization

❑ Related products, up-sells and cross-sells ❑ 100% search engine friendly
❑ Catalog promotional pricing with the ability ❑ Google Site Map
to restrict to stores, categories or products
❑ Search engine friendly URL’s
❑ Flexible coupons (pricing rules) with ability to
❑ URL rewrites give full control of URL’s
restrict to stores, customer groups, time period,
❑ Meta-information for products, categories
products, and categories
and content pages
❑ Generate a set of unique coupon codes for ❑ Auto-generated site map for display on site
each promotion and export the list of codes for
❑ Auto-generated popular search terms page
offline distribution, email, newsletters and more.
Easily manage and monitor coupon usage and ❑ Google Content API for shopping
generate detailed reports
______________________________________
❑ Multi-tier pricing for quantity discounts
❑ Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) ______________________________________
❑ Landing page tool for categories
Site Management
❑ Customer groups
❑ Product bundles ❑ Control multiple websites and stores from one
Administration Panel with the ability to share
❑ Recently viewed and compared products
as much or as little information as needed
❑ New items promotional tool
❑ Administration permission system roles and users
❑ Persistent shopping cart
❑ Fully 100% customizable design using templates
❑ Google Website Optimizer integration for A/B
❑ Support for multiple languages and currencies.
and multivariate testing
Web Services API for easy integration between
❑ Free shipping options Magento and third-party applications
❑ Polls ❑ Batch import and export of catalog and
❑ Newsletter management customer information
❑ Send to a friend for all visitors or registered ❑ Content Management System for informational
users only and landing pages
❑ Send wish lists by email ❑ Tax rates per location, product type or customer
group (i.e. wholesale vs. retailer)
______________________________________ ❑ CAPTCHA functionality to help prevent automated
software from attempting fake logins. This auto-
______________________________________ generated test ensures that the login is being
attempted by a person and can be enabled in
______________________________________ both the admin and customer login areas
______________________________________ ______________________________________
_
______________________________________ ______________________________________

______________________________________

ecommerce Worksheet 2
Checkout, Payment and Shipping Order Management
❑ One-page checkout ❑ View, edit, create and fulfill orders from the
❑ Guest checkout and checkout with account admin panel
to use address book ❑ Create one or multiple invoices, shipments
❑ Shipping to multiple addresses in one order and credit memos per order to allow for split
❑ Option for account creation at beginning fulfillment
of checkout ❑ Print invoices, packing slips and shipping labels
❑ SSL security support for orders on both frontend ❑ Call center (phone) order creation - provides
and back-end transparent control for administrators and
❑ Saved shopping cart front-end enhancements for customers during
❑ Accept gift messages per order and per item the shopping process. Changing product
❑ Shopping cart with tax and shipping estimates configurations, for all types of products, can
❑ Saved credit card method for offline payments be done by the call center sale representative
❑ Configurable to authorize and charge, on the admin side as well as by the customer
or authorize only and charge on creation throughout the shopping process. Custom
of invoices product choices and configurations can be
❑ Integration with Amazon Payments changed directly during order creation, in the
❑ Integration with multiple PayPal gateways wish list and the shopping cart
❑ Integration with Authorize.net – Includes the ability to create new customers,
❑ Integration with Google Checkout (Level 2) or select existing customers and view their
❑ Accept checks/money orders shopping cart, wish list, last ordered items,
❑ Accept purchase orders and compared products lists, as well as
❑ Additional payment extensions available through select addresses, give discounts and assign
Magento Connect custom prices
❑ Shipping integration with label printing - view, ❑ Assisted Shopping - customer service
edit, print labels for all major carriers representatives and other admin users are able
❑ Integrated for real-time shipping rates from: to manage products and coupons in customers’
– UPS, UPS XML (account rates), shopping carts and wish lists through the
FedEx (account rates), USPS and DHL administrator panel
❑ Ability to specify allowed destination countries ❑ Customized Order Status - tracking an order is
per method easier than ever with customizable order statuses
❑ Flat rate shipping per order or item easily assigned to order states.
❑ Free shipping A predefined list of order states (ex. new,
❑ Table rates for weight, sub-total, destination and processing, payment review, complete) represents
number of items the order processing workflow. An order status is
❑ On-site order tracking from customer accounts assigned as a sub-category of the order state
(ex. cancelled, complete, decline)
______________________________________ ❑ Create re-orders for customers from the
administration panel
______________________________________ ❑ Email notifications of orders
______________________________________ ❑ RSS feed of new orders

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

ecommerce Worksheet 3
Customer Accounts International Support
❑ Account dashboard ❑ Support for localization, multiple currencies
❑ Address book with unlimited addresses and tax rates
❑ Wish list with ability to add comments — Includes support for WEEE/DEEE in EU
❑ Order status and history ❑ Support for accented characters and right to
❑ Re-orders from account left text
❑ Recently ordered items ❑ Configurable list of allowed countries for:
❑ Default billing and shipping addresses — Site registration
❑ Email or send RSS feed of wish list — Shipping destination addresses with ability
❑ Newsletter subscription management to specify per shipping method
❑ Product reviews submitted — Billing addresses with ability to specify per
❑ Product tags submitted payment method
❑ Downloadable/digital products
❑ Analytics and Reporting
______________________________________
❑ Mobile Commerce
______________________________________
❑ European Union VAT-ID validation facilitates
______________________________________ the tax collection process by automatically
applying the correct tax rules according to VAT
customer groups
Customer Services
❑ EU cookie notification simplifies the EU Privacy
❑ Contact Us form and Electronic Communications Directive
❑ Create and edit orders from the admin panel compliance process by displaying an opt-in
❑ Feature-rich customer accounts message at the top of the storefront
❑ Order history with status updates
❑ Order tracking from account
❑ Password reset email from front-end and
admin panel
❑ Order and account update emails
❑ Customizable transactional emails
______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

ecommerce Worksheet 4
Analytics and Reporting Mobile Commerce
❑ Integrated with Google Analytics ❑ Support for native applications on iPhone, iPad
❑ Admin dashboard for report overview and Android mobile devices
❑ Sales report ❑ One admin panel for multiple devices
❑ Tax report ❑ Seamless integration with your current product
❑ Abandoned shopping cart report catalog, CMS and store configurations
❑ Best viewed products report ❑ Real-time customization including updates for
❑ Best purchased products report promotions and merchandising
❑ Low stock report ❑ Support for a wide range of checkout capabilities
❑ Search terms report ❑ Mobile HTML5 - quickly and easily create a
❑ Product reviews report storefront optimized for mobile devices so
❑ Tags report customers can shop even when they’re on
❑ Coupon usage report the go. This mobile interface uses HTML5
❑ Total sales invoiced technology and supports iPhone, Android and
❑ Total sales refunded Mobile Opera browsers. It includes out-of-thebox
features such as:
______________________________________
— Device-specific media capabilities for audio
______________________________________ and video
— User-friendly search and results display
______________________________________ — Clean display of product detail pages
— Pinch, multi-touch and scaling images
— Easy swipe between product images
Key Audiences — Zoom capabilities
— Cross-sell and up-sell capabilities
Defining your primary audiences is an important part — Drag-and-drop of products to the
of understanding and building your requirements shopping cart
to best attract and serve your key audiences to create
more sales. Professional web development firms call ______________________________________
these personas and carefully develop them through
workshops and research. Listing your key audiences ______________________________________
is a great start to building personas and will help you
______________________________________
define your requirements.

Audience % of Focus
Example 1: Women with children under the age of 5. 60%
Example 2: Grandparents of children under the age of 5. 20%
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

ecommerce Worksheet 5
 Traffic Scalability
Before building a site, you should have some targets or existing traffic metrics to help guide development
and hosting decisions. There is a huge difference between building a site for 500 visitors a month and 50,000.

Use the worksheet below to help establish a general traffic and scalability requirements for your organization.

Unique
Monthly Peak Daily Completed
Monthly
Pageviews Visitors Orders (Avg.)
Visitors

Example: 5,000 23,000 28 25

Current

Year 1 (future)

Year 2 (future)

Unique Visitors: This is the total number of visitors (new and returning) to your site in an average month.

Pageviews: Pageviews represent the number of times all available pages are requested (and loaded) in a given time period.
If a visitor looks at 5 pages, they will create 5 pageviews.

Peak Visitors: The maximum number of unique visitors active on the site at any one time.

Completed Orders (transactions): The total number of completed orders in a given time period.

Product / Catalog
Many custom e-commerce requirements are related to the management, display, and organization
of products. The size of the catalog will also affect the design, organization, and management
of the site. Use this section to help define your product/catalog requirements

Current Year 1 (Future) Year 2 (Future)

# of Products

ecommerce Worksheet 6
 The list below includes common ecommerce platform features, use this table to mark which features you
need for catalog management and browsing and also add any features that are not included.

Catalog Management Catalog Browsing

❑ Simple, configurable (e.g. size, color, etc.), ❑ Layered / faceted navigation for filtering of
bundled and grouped products products in categories and search results
❑ Create different price points for different —Filter products by price and display a range
customer groups, such as wholesalers and of prices based on even increments or by a
retailers similar number of products within each range
❑ Virtual products ❑ Static block tool to create category landing pages
❑ Downloadable/digital products with samples ❑ Product comparisons with history
❑ Unlimited product attributes ❑ Configurable search with auto-suggested terms
❑ Attribute sets for quick product creation ❑ Breadcrumbs
of different item types ❑ Ability to assign designs within category and
❑ Inventory management with backordered product level (unique design per product/cat)
items, minimum and maximum quantities ❑ Recently viewed products
❑ Batch updates to products in admin panel ❑ Popular search terms cloud
❑ Automatic image resizing and watermarking ❑ Product listing in grid or list format
❑ Advanced pricing rules and support for
special prices ______________________________________
❑ Search results rewrites and redirects
______________________________________
❑ Moderated product tags and reviews
❑ Customer personalized products – ability ______________________________________
to upload images and text (i.e. for embroidery,
monogramming, etc.)
❑ Customer sorting – define attributes for Product Browsing
customer sorting on category (price, brand, ❑ Multiple images per product
etc.) ❑ Product image zoom-in capability
❑ RSS feed for low inventory alerts ❑ Related products
❑ Stock availability
______________________________________ ❑ Multi-tier pricing upsell
❑ Product option selection
______________________________________
❑ Grouped products view
______________________________________ ❑ Add to wish list
❑ Send to a friend with email
❑ Share on Facebook

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

ecommerce Worksheet 7
 System Custom Requirements

We would like related products to be added to the cart at the

same time without going to each product or hitting “add to cart”
Example:
multiple times. We sell furniture so often customers are looking at
Related Product
a chair and ottoman but would like to add a related coffee table,
Selection “one-click”
side table, and couch. Below the main product should be a list
Selection
of related products, a short description and price. Next to each
product is a checkbox that the customer can check to add these
products to the cart at one time.

ecommerce Worksheet 8
 Integration With Other Systems
If this is a new venture you may not need any integration with other systems and can skip this section, but if
you need to streamline your operation, integrating with other systems may be necessary.

Use the space below to describe any integration requirements with other systems. This doesn’t need to be
technical, just describe how this should work in an ideal situation. What problem does the integration solve?

System Integration Requirements

We currently enter our order manually into our warehouse

Example: management system, creating a bottleneck and the occasional
Warehouse incorrect entry results in a messed up order. Our warehouse
Management management system is a custom built system that runs off a
SQLServer database.

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ecommerce Worksheet 9