Beautifully Crafted eCommerce Website Design Services
We have been creating and marketing eCommerce websites since 2013. We don't utilize just one eCommerce solution. We look at not only your current business needs but where you feel your business will be down the road. We want to help you make the best possible choice on the best platform. Sometimess knowing that you will have to change based on your projections makes sense. In many cases choosing the right system from the start will save you thousands in the long run. Every eCommerce system we use will show products, categories, allow purchases, inventory management, customer service, and purchase information.
Now with years of eCommerce experience and dozens of new and upgrades with eCommerce we can help you make the right business decision. We take a more strategic approach to help you achieve your business needs by asking questions that we've learned through our years of experience. We work with WordPress WooCommerce, nopCommerce, and Shopify for our main eCommerce solutions.
Below you will see some of the core features eCommerce systems offer to help jump-start your thought process.
Core eCommerce Features
Mobile eCommerce
We give you a responsive website that looks beautiful and works well on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
Multiple Vendors
When it comes to an eCommerce site it's great to be able to segment all of your products into not only categories but the actual vendors of the products that you are selling.
Product Features
There is no limit to the number of products, categories, and images each of your products has. Allowing you to always present with your best foot forward.
Payment Gateways
We make certain that you have a solution that works well with your credit card provider. Whether that be PayPal, Square, Stripe, or another provider. We want you to have control over all of your credit card processing.
Checkout Process
Once your customers put products into their shopping cart you want as simple of a checkout process possible. We streamline based on your business requirements and always have available upselling options throughout the checkout process.
Marketing Features
Whether you have carts being abandoned, coupons, returning customer rewards, newsletters, gift cards, and more we make certain that your site is able to handle your unique business needs.
Shipping
Once somone orders you need to make certain that your shipping costs are calculated correctly and accurately. We can integrate you into USPS, UPS, FedEx, and more. This allows the customer to pick and choose what option is best for them.
Taxes
No one likes to pay taxes and our systems include everything you need to be in compliance, report, and get your taxes paid.
GDPR
When it comes to online sales you have to comply with all the laws out there. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a requirement for dealing with any customer in the European Union (EU) as well as California is now inacting many of those laws as part of it's state requirements.
Security
We setup every website with 24x7 monitoring, malware, and virus protection. All of our eCommerce sites are continually monitored for credit card PCI compliance so you and your customers will know you take all the best practices to keep their information safe and secure.
Dropshipping
There are ways to sell products with no inventory, fulfillment, or upfront costs. This is where dropshipping comes in for businesses wanting to sell online without storing, shipping, and maintaining the products they sell.
SSL Certificates
Every website includes SSL an SSL certificate to give trust not only to your customers but the search engines as well.
Analytics
Every website comes with Google Analytics setup with rules to show how your website is performing over time.
Heatmapping
Having analytics is helpful but knowing how your customers use your website is a whole new level. With heatmapping we can tell what areas are working and the areas that need some marketing love to help them perform better.
We make a dedicated email Microsoft Exchange compatible mail server available at your domain name.
Unlimited Forms
We provide you with the ability to have an unlimited number of customized forms to get the information you need from your website visitors. These range from basic contact forms to complete online surveys.
WCAG Compliance
We make certain that your website is fully compliant for all the latest in compliance with federal and state government internet compliance. Read below for more information.
Customer Support
We give you the ability to edit everything on your website yourself while also being available to do all the changes for you basedon the care plan you choose.
Mobile eCommerce
Mobile e-commerce is no longer a trend—it’s a necessity. With the majority of online shopping now happening on mobile devices, businesses must optimize their stores for seamless mobile experiences to stay competitive. A mobile-friendly e-commerce site ensures that customers can easily browse, shop, and complete purchases on their smartphones and tablets, reducing friction and increasing conversions. At Fawkes Digital Marketing, we use WordPress and WooCommerce to create responsive, mobile-optimized online stores that deliver fast load times, intuitive navigation, and secure checkout processes. By prioritizing mobile e-commerce, you can reach a wider audience, boost sales, and provide the convenience modern shoppers demand.
Multiple Vendors
Multi-vendor and drop shipping support enable you to sell online without having to stock inventory or ship orders.
Assign drop shipped products to a particular vendor. When orders come in, an email is automatically sent to the vendor to fulfill the order.
Provide vendors with the ability to manage their products, review sales reports, and order details regarding their products.
Product Features
Storing attributes for your products as you need, such as size and color — each with its own SKU, price, weight, image and stock level. Store owners can add text options to products for shoppers to fill in, such as initials for monogrammed products. The shoppers can also upload files, for example, for custom prints on shirts.
Comparing products side by side removes the guesswork from your customers and facilitates their research, hence, improving the time spent on, and odds of, adding a product to the cart.
Our inventory management allows store owners to discern physical stock and available quantities. You can easily manage backorder and pre-order status for each product. Multiple warehouses, partial deliveries, and stock management by product attributes (such as color and size) are supported.
Have a generalized product price is excellent. Having the ability for customized prices for different groups of customers, hide prices for extra-valuable items, and make customers contact a sales team by enabling "call for price." Having an option for "enter your price" functionality for donations is helpful for not-for-profits.
Support for license and user agreement attachments for downloadable products, such as music files or ebooks. A store owner can choose a download activation type: "When order payment status is Paid" or "Manual activation".
Other key product attributes are:
- Rental products
- Recurring products
- Product tags
- Return management
- Multiple images per product
- Featured products, sale products, or new products
- Bundle (e.g., Build your computer) and grouped products
- Conditional product attributes
- Product specifications (e.g., processor, memory, graphic card)
- Security. ACL (access control list) on products, categories, and manufacturers
- Configurable measure weights and dimensions
- Import and export
- Bulk editing, etc.
Payment Methods
Accept all major credit and debit cards. Authorize only or auth-capture credit card modes: support full, partial refund, and void functionality. Every country has its payment preferences. Limit payment methods per country.
Support one, or more, payment gateways:
- Cash on delivery or Pay in store
- Purchase order
- Check/money order
- 2Checkout
- AliPay
- Amazon
- ANZ
- Authorize.NET
- Bambora
- bKash
- BluePay
- Braintree
- Buckaroo
- CardConnect
- CCAvenue
- Cybersource
- E-xact
- EBS
- EasyPayWay
- Eway
- First Data GGE4
- G2A Pay
- iPay88
- Mollie
- Ogone
- OKPAY
- PagSeguro
For information related to credit card processors click here.
Checkout Process
Anonymous checkout allows customers to checkout without creating an account. Many customers prefer this option as it will enable them to finish the purchase quicker.
One-page checkout dramatically reduces the steps required in the checkout process and increases revenue and conversion rates by making the checkout easier for customers.
Checkout attributes. At the checkout, you can provide customers with various options. For example, you can gift wrap products or personalize them with messages.
Other checkout features include:
- Phone order support
- Multilingual and multi-currency support
- Configurable measure weights and dimensions
- SSL support (secure browsing and checkout)
- PDF order receipts
- Mini shopping cart
Marketing Features
Marketing should never be an afterthought. Digital marketing allows you to increase your sales further and grow your business. Here are several core features we look to include:
- Reward Points System: Reward programs allow you to offer points earned on the money spent at your store. A customer can then redeem the points for additional products at your store.
- Related products: Displaying associated products is a great tool to upsell while customers browse a product page or before they check out.
- Discounts and coupons: The discount amount can either be a fixed value or a percent off, e.g., $10.00 off or 20% off. You can specify a start date and an end date when a coupon is valid. Assign discounts to products, entire categories, shipping, order totals, and more. Assign savings to specific customer roles. Supports quantity discounts (tier prices), "N times only" and "N times per customer" discounts, and other various discount requirements (e.g., "Has one of these products in the cart" or "Spent XX amount").
- Newsletter and emails: Sending newsletters to customers is a great way to let them know about your products and upcoming sales. They sent out to inform your audience of the latest news, tips, or updates about your products or company.
- Gift cards: Gift card functionality is something that every merchant needs, no matter if running an online or offline business. Support for gift cards delivered via email (virtual) and classic gift cards sent via post (physical).
- Product reviews and ratings: Product reviews are one of the best forms of marketing. Asking for feedback on products gives customers a voice, and at the same time lets potential customers know what other people think about your products.
- Integrate with all major product feeds: Google Shopping, PriceGrabber and Yahoo Shopping, and become.com.
- Affiliate program: Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a store owner rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's marketing efforts.
Shipping Features
Support various shipping requirements and settings. Key items to look for are:
- Calculation: Supports flexible calculation mechanisms: a store can be configured for free shipping over $X, shipping rates can be based on order weight or order totals, additional shipping charges can be specified per product, and shipping discounts (percent or fixed amount) can be created. Certain customer groups can be marked for free shipping. Limit available shipping methods per country, or apply "no shipping required" (e.g., for services).
- Addresses: Different addresses for billing and shipping, so they can easily send items as gifts.
- Estimate shipping: Estimate shipping cost before the checkout process starts. Customers just enter country, state and zip code information - available shipping options and their estimated costs will be shown.
- Pickup Points: Supports in-store pickup. This feature allows a store owner to configure pickup locations where customers can receive parcels.
- Packaging slips: Multiple shipments per order and tracking numbers are supported. Customers can easily track where their shipments are right now.
- Shipping methods: A store owner can define custom shipping methods (e.g., Ground, Next Day, 2nd Day, etc) or use popular shipping carriers (e.g., UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc). Integrated with major shipping carriers. Your customers can choose their preferred carrier based on experience, price, or destination.
Tax Features
Tax calculations offer a considerable amount of flexibility to meet your store's legal requirements, preferences, and expectations of your customers. Store owners can easily manage all settings and details in the administration panel.
Tax features list:
- Configuration of taxes by country, state, zip.
- Individual products can be marked taxable or tax-exempt.
- Tax classes for different products (e.g., goods, services, alcohol, etc.)
- Mark customers as tax-exempt.
- European Union Value Added Tax (EU VAT) support (Company VAT Number).
- Store owners can specify "tax based on".
- billing/shipping/default/shipping origin address setting.
- Prices can be displayed, including or excluding tax.
- Store owners can specify whether shipping is taxable.
- Tax automation services integration.
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) (GDPR) is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and of human rights law, in particular Article 8(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. The GDPR's primary aim is to enhance individuals' control and rights over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business. Superseding the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, the regulation contains provisions and requirements related to the processing of personal data of individuals (formally called data subjects in the GDPR) who are located in the EEA, and applies to any enterprise—regardless of its location and the data subjects' citizenship or residence—that is processing the personal information of individuals inside the EEA.
The GDPR was adopted on 14 April 2016 and became enforceable beginning 25 May 2018. As the GDPR is a regulation, not a directive, it is directly binding and applicable, and provides flexibility for certain aspects of the regulation to be adjusted by individual member states.
The regulation became a model for many other laws across the world, including in Turkey, Mauritius, Chile, Japan, Brazil, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina and Kenya. As of 6 October 2022 the United Kingdom retains the law in identical form despite no longer being an EU member state. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), adopted on 28 June 2018, has many similarities with the GDPR.
Security & Compliance
Security is essential in today's world to need the following features:
- GDPR support - meets all the requirements of the European Union Laws. We track all the legislative changes and make updates to the platform accordingly.
- PCI DSS compliance - Meets all PCI Compliance requirements. 50+ integrated payment methods and gateways to transmit credit card data securely.
- Built on secure technologies
- SSL support to provide secure browsing and checkout
- Honeypot support to prevent spam
- Flexible and robust customer password policy
For information related to credit card processors click here.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is an order fulfillment option that allows ecommerce businesses to outsource procuring, storing, and shipping products to a third party—typically a supplier.
The dropshipping model commonly appeals to entrepreneurs seeking efficiency and low overhead, but it can come at a cost. This guide will cover what dropshipping is and explore how this fulfillment method can work. We’ll also look at a few alternative fulfillment models.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the visibility of a website in search results. Everyone can pay to play on the search engines. Only when you have a good setup can you rank for organic traffic to your online store and spend less on paid ads.
Your eCommerce site should create search engine friendly URLs to make store pages more search engine-friendly. A store owner should have full access to keyword tags and customized URLs management sections.
For good organic search results, you need to have an XML sitemap. This structured format of a site that a visitor doesn't need to see. The sitemap gives information about the pages on site to search engines: their relative importance to each other, and how often they are updated.
Microdata is a specification to embed machine-readable data on your website to provide better search results. Integrating microdata into your website's code offers several potential advantages. First, microdata can give the search engine spiders more context for the type of information on the website and how the site should be indexed and ranked. Another benefit of microdata is the creation of "rich snippets," which display more information on search result pages than traditional listings. Support Twitter and Open Graph (Facebook) META tags.
Localizing your website URLs based on a specific language helps you with international SEO. URL localization increases the chance of matching search results in other cultures/languages.
Breadcrumbs are a great way to allow your site visitors to navigate back to a primary category without having to go back to the homepage or producing a new site search.
Integration with Google Analytics allows the eCommerce transaction tracking tool to automatically connects your Google Analytics data with customer transactions.
Customer Service
Customer service in your eCommerce site should include:
- GDPR support: Compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- External authentication: Allows your customers to register and log in using such services as OpenID, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Wishlist: Wishlist enables customers to store products for purchasing at a later time.
- RTL support: RTL means Right-To-Left and is for users who use an alphabet that is read & written from another direction, such as Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew.
- EU cookie law: Effective from May 2012, the EU (European Union) cookie law requires websites to gain users' permission before planting cookies.
- Customer attributes: Any built-in customer attribute (e.g., Country or Address fields) can be disabled or enabled. A store owner can also create additional attributes if required.
- Security and permissions: A store owner can configure specific rules and permissions for different categories of users.
- And a lot of other features:
- Web Services API
- Allow customers to register/login by email or by username
- Customers can view their order history and order statuses
- Customer has an address book
- Customer roles (groups)
- Live chat integration
- Customizable order emails
- Private messages
- Time zone support
- Password recovery
- Several account registration types such as automatic registration, email validation, or admin approval.
- reCAPTCHA support
- Contact Us form
- Customer activity log, etc.
WCAG (Guidelines) For People with Disabilities
Every website created or takenover from Fawkes Digital Marketing, goes through the process of being as compliant as possible without breaking your website for those with disabilities. We do this by following not only the best practices in the code that we write for you but also strive for full ADA compliance before we would integrate any ADA plugins. This means your website will be 90% or higher before any ADA plugins are installed. Fawkes Digital Marketing is the only digital marketing company in Northwest Indiana that strives for this.
As a business owner you need to care. There are new lawsuits out daily and small business is an easy target for these. By striving you're not just helping those with disabilities. You are improving your website so that it is much easier to use and understand. This makes moving the needle for your organic search engine optimization (SEO) stronger than your competition.
By taking the proper steps you are establishing yourself not only as a leader/pillar of your community but also one that cares for all of your customers and employees (hint: employees have disabilities too!).
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
While the WCAG Version 2.0 replaced the WCAG Version 1.0, the brand new 2.1 Version is basically an extension of the former. There are three levels of conformance, including A (bare minimum level of accessibility), AA (target level of accessibility meeting legal requirements) and AAA (exceeds accessibility requirements). Under the latest WCAG Version 2.1 guidelines, we can see that in order to have an ADA compliance website design, your website needs to be:
- Perceivable: The content within your website should offer alternatives to text. You need to be compatible with web browsers that provideassistive technology. This technology helps those that need the website read to them or visually-impaired visitors.
- Operable: This guideline is set in terms of navigation, making sure that disabled people can access your website and content with various keyboard options (tabbing, jump to a location, etc.).
- Understandable: Your content should be easy to understand, readable and predictable, with some input assistance if needed.
- Robust: Essentially, you need to have content that is read by various devices and platforms (especially ones for people who use assistive technologies).
Key elements to any ADA Compliant website
- Alt tags for all images and other files: Alt tags are words which allow users with disabilities to read or hear alternative descriptions of some content that they are unable to view. They describe the objects in an image or video and the purpose they serve on the website.
- Proper markup techniques for structuring content: Elements such as the correct heading tags and HTML for ordered and unordered list can also help you get an ADA compliant website. The content should always be presented in a meaningful order and sequence, and it must read properly.
- Element color: The use of one color should be avoided, and there must be a color contrast ratio of at least 4:5:1 between the text and background.
- Element size: Like color, your elements and text need to come in different sizes – text must support resizing up to 200% without causing problems for people trying to read it.
- Text transcripts for audio/video content: ADA compliant websites have text transcripts that help hearing-impaired users understand the content otherwise inaccessible to them.
- Language on-site: You should make it clear what language your site is written. This helps users who utilize text readers to translate better or hear the text present on your website.
- Alternatives for input errors: The ADA requirements for websites suggest that users can encounter input errors because of their need to navigate the website differently. It would be best if you learned how to design an ADA compliant website and offer recommendations to your visitors in such cases.
- Consistency in layout: Your website layout should be consistent. This means that all of your menus, inks and buttons should be organized so that they are clearly moved away from one another and easily navigated throughout the site.
Is ADA Compliance Required?
ADA is a new act that was brought to users by the public. The ADA does not explicitly include web or mobile accessibility; however, the Department of Justice has stated on numerous occasions that ADA compliance includes access to websites that provide services, public accommodations, and/or other functions already included under the ADA.
ADA website compliance affects businesses with at least 15 full-time employees operating for 20 or more weeks every year. This is what Title I of the ADA regulations show, while Title III says that all businesses that fall into the category of "public accommodation" (hotels, banks, healthcare institutions, educational organizations, public transportation) are required to comply. If your business falls under either of these categories, you should see if your Website is compliant.
ADA Compliant Websites & Search Engine Optimization
ADA compliant websites are indexed and crawled by search engines in an easier way, pushing their position up in the rankings and getting the entire content in front of every user. The reason for this is they are built in a consistent way made for everyone.