In many ways an eCommerce site or the eCommerce section of a website needs to be designed in the same way as any other website:

• easy navigation
• good page layout
• clear USPs
• good offering
• appropriate branding / graphics
• good ‘social’ feedback from customers
• analytics to measure visitor response to the site

But in other ways, it is very different from most other websites due to its database infrastructure:

• SEO helpful URLs can be a challenge
• SEO friendly page content – including catalogue level pages – correct use of heading coding and ability to set tag content on a per page basis are all essential requirements but not always possible
• Provision needs to be made for all of the ways that internet users may search for the product, e.g. make, size, colour
• Tracking visitors through payment gateways is often complex and expensive #
• Competition for high search ranking is likely to be very strong

# this is the most ‘dangerous’ area of eCommerce where visitors often abandon their ‘shopping’.  Sometimes this is purely because they become distracted or run out of time but it can also be because the checkout process is too complex or the payment methods available do not suit the visitor.

The development of a successful eCommerce site therefore requires specialist eCommerce consultancy in the planning, building and implementation stages.  This is an area where WSI is particularly strong.