The 5 key points of your e-commerce website brief

Writing the brief for your e-commerce website is both essential and complex. You need to account for numerous elements whilst remaining clear. The sales options, the back office, the site's architecture, the product categories… the list can quickly grow.

How can you be as comprehensive as possible when creating your brief? Listing the essential functions quickly becomes a priority.

1. Present your project

First and foremost, explaining the context will prevent misunderstandings. Briefly present your company, the objectives of the site and its target audience.

Specify the desired language or languages and state that the site must be Responsive — that is, adapted to different screen sizes (computers, mobile phones, etc.).

2. Think about the visual identity of the site

Do you already have a clear idea of the colours and tones you would like on your site? Do you have a few examples you would like to draw inspiration from? Do you already have a logo for your brand?
If so, make that clear here and add links or images as necessary.

If you have no clear ideas about the visual identity, your service provider can offer guidance. You can also specify what you do not want to see on your site — which is just as important.

If you do not yet have a logo, you can ask the service provider building your site to quote for one at the same time. Killing two birds with one stone!

3. Add the functional description of the site

This means: the look of the site, its architecture, its layout, its structure.

The menu

Which categories should appear in the menu? Which ones lead to which pages and sub-categories?

You might note, for example, the categories: Home; Shop; About us; Blog; Client area.

The footer

Think also about the footer (the bottom section of your site). Here too, you will need to specify which categories you want to appear.

For example: Product category 1; 2; 3; FAQ; Legal notices; Contact; Press

The product catalogue

This is the central element of your site — the reason visitors will come. It is important to think carefully about this catalogue, this shop.

How many products do you plan to offer? 100, 500, 1,000? The look of the catalogue will vary according to these quantities. If you are offering around thirty products, you can display them all on a single page. But with 500 products, you will inevitably need to segment your shop into categories. List all the necessary categories.

For truly large e-commerce sites, also ask for an internal search engine on the site and/or filters to refine searches: Price ranges, Category types, or even a "Our picks" tick box to highlight certain products.

Along the same lines, still for the largest e-commerce sites in terms of volume, specify whether you would like to implement a sort filter: Display products in ascending price order, by newest arrivals, etc.

Product pages

Often an afterthought when planning a future website, product pages are nonetheless essential. They are what can ultimately convince your visitors to buy your products (or put them off).
Each product page should be as unique and detailed as possible. Think about the information you yourself would want when making an online purchase and list it in your brief.

Product name, Photos, Written description, Origin, Dimensions, Textures, Weight, Options, Colours, Estimated lifespan, Certification, Guarantees, etc. The possibilities are numerous and will obviously vary depending on what you sell. Whether you are selling wine, meat, mobile phones or shoes, the attributes you need to present will differ.

The client area

Will visitors be required to register in order to make a purchase, or not?

Will they be able to log in to your site using their Facebook or Google+ account? Or will they have to register by email?

If they must create an account, what information will they be required to provide? How will this customer data be used?

These are important elements to consider and include in the brief.

Payment and delivery methods

What types of payment would you like to offer your customers? Bank card, PayPal, digital wallet, bank transfer (primarily used in B2B), etc.? Bank cards remain the undisputed default in France, and the vast majority of online shoppers will use one. But that does not mean you should close yourself off to other payment types, depending on the needs of your market and the habits of your target clientele.

The same applies to delivery methods. If you have no clear ideas, your service provider may be able to advise.

In addition, would you like to implement order tracking (in transit, etc.), payment tracking (ability to refund a customer, etc.) and stock management (manage stock manually, etc.)?

The blog

Do you intend to add a blog to your site, which you will update regularly? Again, you can specify this in the brief.

Note that you may not want a blog initially and can add one after the fact, once your e-commerce business is more developed.

4. Describe the back-office functions

Think about and specify the functionality you will need once the site is live. You will certainly want to add information, products and update others as your e-commerce business grows. Making sure you have the tools to do so is important.

Note that some service providers can also offer you a training session of an hour or two to teach you the basics and ensure you can manage your site effectively going forward.

Standard functions

These functions relate to the day-to-day management of your site and the essential changes you will want to make. In particular, publishing articles or creating/editing new pages.

E-commerce functions

Specify to what degree you want to be able to modify your catalogue: adding and removing products, updating information, prices and product pages, setting up promotions or temporary discount codes, updating the home page, etc.

These functionalities may seem obvious, but noting them down remains important.

5. Hosting and maintenance

Do you want to register the domain name, host and maintain your site yourself, or leave your service provider to handle it?

Some website-building service providers take charge of this aspect and spare you the stress of choosing the right host and managing any bugs or attacks that a web platform may experience. The decision is yours, depending on your level of technical knowledge.

Drawing up an exhaustive list of every element to include in an e-commerce website brief is a complex task — all the more so since every sector has its own specific features and important details. We hope nonetheless that these 5 points will help you see more clearly and approach this stage in creating an e-commerce site with greater confidence.

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