tips on building my first ecommerce site

Question

I've just taken on a client who needs a subscription based ecommerce site created using ProductCart software. I'm pretty handy with PHP so I should be able to figure out the software. My question is - what are some things i should be aware of when creating a subscription based ecommerce site? What types of questions should I be asking the client? I need to get more specifics from them regarding the different subscription levels and periods, but what other specifics should I get nailed down? I appreciate any help anyone can give.

thanks...

Answer 1

smashing magazine has a nice article on things to look for when designing an e-commerce site.

Answer 2

I would highly, highly, HIGHLY (can I make it any more clear) recommend reading and understanding almost everything on this question: What should a developer know before building a public web site?

It outlines all the big things you need to know about Security and Performance for Public Websites, a lot of which apply to e commerce sites. (When people's money is involved, it needs to work right).

Furthermore, you should make sure any certificates you should have are there, encryption, etc.

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For Client's Specific Needs:

Signing Up:

• Do they want to have promo codes to discount stuff?
• Is there a trial period?

Billing:

• When does billing occur? (Probably should be doled out throughout the month)
• Should there be an interface to change the billing date?

Leaving:

• How long does Customer Information stick around?
• How much access does a person have to the site when they unsubscribe
• Is there a day of grace period (Useful for file-storage sites)

Some of this stuff might be dictated by the package you are using, but still good to have figured out.

Answer 3

Be sure to ask what types of payment they want to accept. Credit cards? Which ones? E-checks? Paypal? Google checkout? Are card numbers being stored on the payment gateway? If not are you PCI compliant? Do you already have SSL? If not, who's getting the SSL cert? How do you want to handle refunds? Are cancellations pro-rated? Do you want to support affiliates? Do you want to have discount codes? Do subscriptions have setup fees?