An ecommerce website is your digital storefront on the internet. It facilitates the transaction between a buyer and seller. It is the virtual space where you showcase products, and online customers make selections. Your website acts as the product shelves, sales staff, and cash register of your online business channel.

This one might feel like too obvious of a question to bring up. Yet, in fact, it’s always best to hear about the business in your client’s own words. Hearing it come from them can clue you in on their view of the business and help you see what matters most to them. There are businesses that you know very little about (such as the career of a freelance taxidermist), so it’s always useful to become familiar with your client’s practice. But even in instances when the profession sounds pretty self-explanatory, like a dog walker, the values you might choose to emphasize can vastly differ based on how they describe their business. For example, saying, ‘I never walk more than five dogs at the same time,’ implies that intimacy and familiarity are the main values in this business,

Ask your client to send over three to four favorite links, with a brief explanation of what makes each of them appealing. Similarly, direct the client to a few examples in your own portfolio and note what traits they have in common with what you’re thinking of creating for them. State very clearly that you’re not copying an existing website, but rather using these examples loosely as inspiration and reference for the two of you.

Social media is its own form of web presence, and seeing what works and what doesn’t work in your client’s communication with customers on social platforms, can be translated into the design of their new website. Find out if they want their website to link to any of their active social media channels.

Your client might have a clearly defined visual language that is carried across their stationary and Powerpoint presentations, and yet not share it with you as it’s unrelated to web design (or so they think). Ask for anything that might help understand their existing aesthetic and look-and-feel. Find out if they’re happy with this visual language, or whether they prefer to change it in any way. Make sure you request to use photographs or other images that they might have, which can turn out to be a perfect fit for their new website.

Your client might have a clearly defined visual language that is carried across their stationary and Powerpoint presentations, and yet not share it with you as it’s unrelated to web design (or so they think). Ask for anything that might help understand their existing aesthetic and look-and-feel. Find out if they’re happy with this visual language, or whether they prefer to change it in any way. Make sure you request to use photographs or other images that they might have, which can turn out to be a perfect fit for their new website./p>