Writing an e-commerce website specification document: 8 essentials

Most e-commerce web agencies will request a specification, this should list out what you're trying to achieve and the constraints you are working to.

Often business begin to sketch out a solution, indicating an initial look and feel and a list of features, but this isn't 100% necessary.

In this article we've distilled the necessary elements that should be included.

1. State your objectives

Why do you need a website? What outcomes do you want to achieve? Are they measurable?

In this section, explaining a bit about the background of the business will help to build context around your objectives, which could be useful later on.

Try and list two to five objectives that you are trying to achieve. This should be the lens through which decisions are made throughout your project, this approach will ensure you complete a project that helps your business and stops you from losing focus.

Some common objectives:

• Increase website sales revenue
• Increase conversion rate
• Increase visitor numbers/be higher in Google
• Reduce admin/order fulfilment time and cost

Of course, these will depend on your organisation and it's really useful to come up with specific measurable amounts for each, even if you keep these private at the start of the project.

2. Key Audiences

You need to identify the key audiences that visit your website (or that you'd like to visit your website). In e-commerce, the absolute number one focus is visitors and returning customers.

Once you have your audiences listed, the key thing you need to consider for each is what they want to be able to do easily on your site and what you want them them to be able to do easily on your site.

In e-commerce, the goal is going to be complete a sale. For this reason your primary navigation and front page content should almost always direct customers to products and special offers.

3. Competitor analysis

Who are your closest competitors? What are they up to? Who has the best site and why? Who isn't doing so well?

This is a really important consideration if you want to beat them, so have a look through your main competitors and make a list to include in the specification.

You could make a matrix of these and show where you sit in it - this will be helpful in gauging how you should differentiate yourself.

4. Other stakeholders

An extremely common problem with IT projects is that all 'stakeholders' (loosely, users of the system) are not involved at the start of the project.

This is especially true for larger brands whose departments effectively function as a series of semi-independant smaller businesses.

In order to produce a solution that is going to make everyone happy, everyone needs to be taken in to consideration.

So before your project even begins, consider all the people that will need to use the site. This can include:

• The marketing department
• Warehouse staff
• Order fulfillment/admin staff
• Customer service teams
• Content maintainers
• Management

Remember, once a project gets going people only talk about what's missing, not what's already been achieved. Try and reduce the risk of this by taking all parties' requirements in to account at the start of the project.

5. A Word About Budget

Many people don't want to disclose their budget when they contact us.

This is counterproductive. If we know your objectives and your budget, we can come up with the best solution.

If your budget is low, tell us and we will think about what can be done with it. Either we can select a specific technology that is cheaper to set up or we can suggest a phased approach where more functionality can be added later.

You may also want to consider an Agile approach to development if you can tolerate not getting a fixed price quote. Often the results are better.

Be realistic and keep in mind that if you don't have much budget you'll need to compromise on what you want the site to do.

Using a platform like Shopify means that a lot of the work is already done, therefore the effort is less and the cost cheaper. The downside is that it's a closed propreitary system and therefore not as flexible as building from scratch.

When we say building from scratch, what we really mean is building a bespoke e-commerce solution on top of an existing base platform like Magento, Drupal Commerce or similar. On these platforms we have direct code access and therefore anything is possible, budget allowing. However, because the time required to build a site like this is a lot more, so is the price. This type of solution may be necessary if you want a lot of third party integration, unusual features or a very unique design. It's also a good option if you intend to build on what you have other time, as your business grows.

6. Feature list

This is the place for technical specifications, if you have any. For example, the CMS or web framework that should be used, what payment gateways do you want to use, should the website should integrate with any other systems?

In e-commerce, usually the answer to the last question is: Yes. Typically you want your website to integrate with stock management, analytics or affiliate systems. If this is the case, and API documentation or guide from each of these suppliers should be sought and this should be included in your specification.

This is also a good time to consider what are called non-functional requirements - these are requirements related to usability, legal (compliance such as PCI DSS), security and performance (i.e. loading times, important for e-commerce).

Include a short bullet point list of what feature requirements you have, this is extremely important in determining the effort required in the build stage of your site.

7. Wireframes, look and feel

This is optional, but sometimes useful. In this section you should try and convey a prototype of what you want to achieve.

• Rough wireframes and sketches showing what you imagine your site to look like can be useful here.
• Showing behaviour (e.g. of dropdowns) may also be helpful.
• A suggested site structure may be obvious from these wireframes, otherwise you should include a basic idea of what content you think your site needs and how it will be divided.
• It's often helpful to include a list of sites you like and don't like, this will save time during the design stage.

Really, this is what you are paying the agency to come up with, so don't worry too much about it. The last point is the most important, though if you have an elaborate idea now is the time to expain it.

8. Timescales

This takes us on to the next must have - timescales and any deadlines.

Obviously this is a key constraint on your project and may determine how the project is structured.

If the deadline is approaching quickly, perhaps a more basic version 1 of your shop can be put online whilst the full version is in the works.

In our experience, most projects take around 3 months to complete - they have been done quicker but we've completed over 100 projects and I'd say this is the median.

Getting a quote

You can use your e-commerce website specification to request sensible, accurate quotes from a number of agencies.

This is the first step towards a new ideal e-commerce site that meets your goals and takes your business to the next level.

If you'd like to contact us to discuss your next project, please click here.

You may also be interested in our website specification template.