Turning Our Idea Into a Plan

In our last post, we said the words that started this whole journey:

“What if we built our own online shop?”

Having the idea was the easy part.

Now comes the slightly more complicated bit — working out how we're actually going to make it happen.

Time to Start Planning

Before we start building anything, we need a proper plan.

There are plenty of questions to answer.

What are we going to sell? How should the shop look? How will customers find what they're looking for? How will payments work? What delivery options should we offer? And what happens once somebody actually places an order?

Suddenly, our simple idea has turned into quite a list!

But that's exactly why we're taking the time to plan everything properly.

Thinking About Our Customers

One of the biggest things we're thinking about is the experience for the person actually using the shop.

We've all visited websites where finding a product feels harder than it should be.

We don't want that.

Our aim is simple: make the shop easy to use.

Customers should be able to find what they want, understand exactly what they're buying and place an order without having to fight their way through a complicated checkout.

And, of course, it needs to work just as well on a phone or tablet as it does on a computer.

Products, Payments and Deliveries

Then there are the practical things.

We're working through the products we want to offer, how they'll be organised, pricing, stock, payments, packaging and delivery.

None of these things sound particularly exciting on their own, but they're all important pieces of the puzzle.

Get them right and hopefully everything just works.

The Plan Is Coming Together

We're still at the beginning of the journey, but things are starting to feel much more real.

What started as a conversation is becoming an actual plan.

We've got plenty of work ahead of us, but we're getting closer to the really exciting part.

It's nearly time to start building.

Next: Building Our New Online Shop →