Basic Steps Involved in the Design and Development of an Electronic Commerce Website

I.Design Website

A.Design general HTML templates to be used through out the site.

1.Decide on the fonts that will be used consistently through out the site.

2.Design the actual user interface.

a)Design the layout (composition) of the webpage.

b)Navigation system.

c)Any other visual component such as company logo, banners, ads, etc.

B.Design static components (i.e. images, HTML files, animations, etc.)

C.Design database.

1.Identify the type and amount of information that you plan to capture and store.

2.Choose database type depending on factors such as scalability, ease of use, cost effectiveness.

D.Design necessary scripts, programs and interface to the database to be able to serve dynamic content.

1.Decide what kind of platform the web server will be running on.

2.Decide what kind of scripting or programming you will need to use. Most popular today are: ASP, ColdFusion, PERL, C++, VB.

3.Design product and service catalog.

4.Find and register an account with an online credit card processor.

5.Design the interface to capture and process credit cards entered by customers and store the necessary information into the database.

II.Hosting

A.Calculate the necessary resources for your Website.

B.Decide whether it will be more efficient to have the Website hosted by an ISP or in-house.

C.Setup Website on the server.

D.Setup SSL for secure connections.

E.Setup security policies.

III.Implementation

A.Static content such as HTML pages.

B.Dynamic content.

1.Input initial information such as catalog into the database.

2.Deploy scripts.

3.Debug scripts.

4.Implement backend interface for convenient input and administration of dynamic content and databases.

C.Test Website.

D.Turn Website live.

IV.Promote Website

A.Submit URL to search engines.

B.Advertise on portals and/or any other Website that has high traffic.

1.Offer unique services in return for exposure and advertising.

C.Advertise through printed press and television.

V.Website Maintenance

A.Static content

1.Check if all links are current and valid.

2.Proof read content.

B.Dynamic content

1.Check if all scripts are working.

2.Streamline, optimize existing scripts.

3.Design and implements new scripts for evolving content, data and services.

C.Analyze server logs.

D.Modify or replace the webpages or parts of the Website that are not generating the desired results.

E.Check database integrity.

F.Update databases.