E-Commerce
Learn the fundamentals of e-commerce business and site design
Shopping at Amazon.com may be easy, but building an e-commerce Web site is a serious challenge. What with business plans, technology, hosting, architecture, accounting, shopping cart, security, and legal issues, it's no wonder most designers leave e-commerce Web design to the pros.
In this hands-on course, you'll learn essentials of e-commerce Web site creation including design techniques, shopping cart and credit card options, and more. You'll create a basic, functioning e-commerce site and learn how to create online shops for small business clients.
Studying with one of the leading voices in Web design will help you learn a systematic approach to e-commerce development. From finding e-commerce site hosting, to making quality design decisions, building your shopping cart, setting up quality customer service, and product fulfillment after the launch, you will address the needs required in e-commerce projects.
Class projects guide you step-by-step through the design and business decisions that are critical to success. By the end of the course, you'll have built a functional site and gained the confidence to build more.
Tuition: $900 US
Course Instructor(s):
Requirements:
- Computer with Internet connection (56 Kbps modem or faster).
- Experience developing Web pages with HTML and CSS (either hand-coding or with an editor such as Dreamweaver).
- Experience creating Web graphics using Photoshop, Fireworks, or other graphics application.
- Basic Web hosting account and experience FTPing files to the Web.
Prerequisites:
Course Objectives:
- Develop an understanding of how to define an e-commerce project, including defining your site's intent, budget, staffing, target audience, and hosting.
- Write a site plan that includes company description, statement of intent, products and services, technology and hosting, staffing, and general budget.
- Develop an understanding of the major goals for the primary pages of an e-commerce site, including the home page, about page, product page, and contact sections.
- Write text content for the main areas of a site, including the home page, about page, product page, and contact sections.
- Develop an understanding of standard approaches to structuring, designing, and producing content for an e-commerce site.
- Design appropriate color schemes, typography, layout, graphics, and navigation schemes for an e-commerce site based on e-commerce design principles.
- Develop an understanding of how shopping carts and inventory databases operate and what users expect from shopping carts.
- Configure a free shopping cart for site visitors and add it to an e-commerce site.
- Develop an understanding of different business account options used by e-commerce sites, including merchant accounts and alternative payment systems.
- Research different business account options used by e-commerce sites, assessing the costs and features of each plan.
- Develop an understanding of the importance of order fulfillment and customer service to customer retention and marketing.
- Plan a customer service and order fulfillment strategy for an e-commerce site.
Course Outline
LESSON 1 Defining the Project
So you want to build an e-commerce site—what's your plan? In e-commerce development, planning can spell the difference between a total success and a train wreck. Lesson One explores the essentials that every e-commerce developer needs to consider at the get-go. Topics discussed include business planning, site audience research, technology and hosting options, budgeting, and staffing up for team-based development. In the first exercise you'll create a statement of intent and plan for a sample site or any site that you're planning to build.
LESSON 2 Organizing Content
E-commerce sites are built from certain fundamental components that every project must consider and address. Lesson Two explores the business and content decisions you need to make throughout your site. The home page is of course key to defining your business, welcoming your visitors, and driving them smoothly toward a purchase. But you'll also learn the strategic issues for your site's about page, contact page, product pages , and more , with attention to important visual design concerns. In the exercise, you'll demonstrate mastery of these essentials by creating banner graphics for your site, adding written copy for four main pages, and deciding on the placement of text and visual content.
LESSON 3 Designing for E-Commerce
Now that you've addressed key content and business decisions, you're ready to hone your site's architecture and continue working on the visual design. Lesson Three addresses the usability factors that make e-commerce happen. Streamlining your site architecture prevents confusion and promotes easy browsing. Visual design and color choices must support clear navigation and instill customer confidence. Deft use of typography, product images, and copywriting must create the environment for an informed purchase. In the exercise, you'll put these principles into practice by refining the design of your online storefront and creating effective layout and navigation schemes.
LESSON 4 Shopping Cart Logic
There's more to life than shopping, but not much. Lesson Four explores the many options for setting up a shopping cart at your e-commerce site. You'll look at free and open source tools, commercial out-of-the-box products, hosted solutions, and purchasing vendors. In the exercise, you'll set up a working shopping cart (from a free, online service) for other students to browse with all required code, functionality, buttons, and purchasing options.
LESSON 5 Merchant Accounts
Choosing a merchant account for your site can be a thorny business, but essential for handling online transactions. Lesson Five looks at how to select a merchant account. You'll learn about the pros and cons of traditional versus online merchant accounts, and where to find them. You'll explore alternative accounts including PayPal and check and cash services. In the exercise, you'll identify an account that makes sense for your e-commerce business.
LESSON 6 Fulfillment and Customer Service
Your site's done, now what? Lesson Six looks at the issues of order fulfillment and customer service that are critical to any e-commerce site's long-term success. You'll learn how to provide timely order fulfillment, and what customer service policies and processes to put in place before your site goes live. You'll wrap up with a look at some of the marketing and strategic planning issues to consider so that your site continues to thrive and grow. In the final project (what else?) you'll determine a fulfillment strategy, prepare customer service communications, and add the finishing touches to your fully functional e-commerce site.
Student Hillary Scott's e-commerce site design
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