Before an ecommerce website has a finished homepage, product menu or color palette, the business and website team have to work through some basic questions. Which products should be grouped together and what information needs to be on the homepage? Which brand materials are already available and what still needs to be created?
They also need to determine who is responsible for providing written content and product details, as well as who will review and approve the work.
Based in Woodinville, Washington, Accel Ecommerce works with businesses building new ecommerce websites or updating stores that are outdated, incomplete, difficult to use or inconsistent with the brand.
The company was founded by a team with years of industry experience who wanted to make the website development process more organized and collaborative for clients.
Communication, quality, customer support, accountability, and continuous improvement guide each project. That means collecting the right information early in the process, clearly explaining decisions, listening to feedback and ensuring clients know what is expected at each stage of the project.
Customers may only see the finished pages, but behind them are dozens of decisions about content, organization, branding and functionality. Clear communication helps the team and client make those choices together and turn the business’s ideas into a store that is organized, easy to use and true to the brand.
Leading With the Right Questions
Before moving into design, Accel Ecommerce learns about the client and their business. Initial conversations cover the company’s goals, target market, products, branding, and overall vision for the site.
Even when a client already has a logo, preferred colors and a product list, there is usually more to learn before those pieces can be turned into a website. The team needs to know which products belong together, which parts of the business deserve the most attention and whether the existing brand materials still fit the direction the client wants to take.
Those conversations also help the team plan out the homepage. A business may have several product lines, company information, featured products and other content it wants visitors to see, but there is only so much room on the page.
Roles also have to be clear from the beginning of the project. If the client is providing product descriptions, company information, photos or brand files, the team needs to know what will be supplied and when.
At the same time, clients need to understand which design choices and content decisions will come back to them for review. Having those expectations in place makes it easier to stay on track.
Research gives the team a deeper understanding of the business, its products, market and competitors, helping them make decisions about the store’s branding, organization and presentation.
Instead of making design choices based on assumptions, the team can build the site around what the business sells, how it wants to present itself and what customers need when they visit.
Giving Every Product and Page a Place
Once the planning process is complete, Accel Ecommerce can start creating a fully-functioning website. The company builds out the pages, menus, product categories and other elements that bring the site together.
Products are grouped into categories, menus direct visitors to the right pages and key information is placed where it can easily be found. Visual elements such as colors, fonts, graphics and page layouts are then applied across the site to create a consistent look.
Creative work can include logos, custom color palettes, homepage banners, category graphics, buttons, blog layouts and other elements. Each piece should complement the others so the site feels cohesive.
For businesses with an existing website, the team may need to reorganize pages, rethink product categories, update branding, or decide which content is worth keeping.
That does not necessarily mean starting over. More often, it means identifying what is working, addressing what is not, and making changes that more effectively support the business and its customers.
Someone visiting the site should be able to understand what the business offers and easily find their way around.
Continuous Improvement Happens Through Feedback
The first version of a website is not always the final version. Accel Ecommerce relies on client feedback to refine pages, graphics, product categories and other parts of the site as they come together. Once the website is built, clients can point out specific areas they want to be adjusted.
Sometimes, a color may not feel right for the brand, a product grouping may be too broad, a homepage image may not represent the business accurately or important information may be too far down the page.
Accel Ecommerce listens to what clients want, but also considers how those changes will affect the people using the website. Design choices still need to make the website easy to read and navigate.
“Industry trends can provide useful ideas, but the final design should still fit the client’s business, products, audience, and preferences,” the company said.
Clients do not need to know design terminology to provide productive feedback. They just need enough context to understand what they are reviewing and what the team is trying to accomplish.
Keeping Responsibilities Clear From Start to Finish
Building an ecommerce site often involves the client, the website team and outside services such as hosting platforms or ecommerce tools. Because several people and providers can be involved, Accel Ecommerce makes sure clients know who is responsible for each part of the process and where different questions should be directed.
Page design, site organization and other website decisions may fall to Accel Ecommerce, while technical issues involving an outside platform may need to be handled by that provider.
Product information, approvals and other business decisions may be the client’s responsibility. Depending on the project, clients may also have access to a dedicated account manager, daily classrooms and six months of live support.
The level of guidance Accel Ecommerce provides can vary depending on the client’s experience. Someone building an online store for the first time may need more explanation than a business owner who is already familiar with ecommerce.
As the project progresses, the information clients need changes. Early conversations focus on the site’s structure, content and materials the client needs to provide. Later, the focus shifts to the store’s back end, launch preparation and how clients will manage the site once it goes live.
Consistent Communication Creates Better Websites
A website project can reveal more about a business than how it wants its pages to look. Decisions about navigation, product categories, homepage priorities and branding can also help a company decide what matters most and how it wants to present its product or service.
That makes communication more than a project-management tool. Questions from the website team can bring attention to gaps the business may not have considered, while client feedback can clarify which products, messages and visual choices best represent the company.
If products are difficult to organize into categories, customers may have trouble understanding the differences between them. If everything feels important enough to feature on the homepage, the business may need to decide which products, services or messages should take priority.
The strongest website decisions come from working through those issues together. The client brings knowledge of their company, customers and products, while the website team brings an outside perspective on how that information may come across to someone who is unfamiliar with the business.
By launch, the website will ideally reflect a business that has made decisions about what it offers, what customers need to understand and how those ideas should be presented online. The client should also come away knowing how to personally manage the site once the project is complete.
“Success is not limited to a sales or traffic number. It can also mean that a client has a professional website, understands the process, feels supported, and has a stronger online foundation,” Accel Ecommerce said.
