A big part of being able to give your client an accurate quote or estimate for their Company Store is to decide if you are going to tackle building the store on your own and go the DIY route or if you want us to do the heavy lifting for you with a Turnkey package.
First, you need to uncover exactly what your client needs from their store. To help you discover their requirements, we have a list of ten questions to ask before deciding if they need a Simple, Basic, or Advanced store and how to manage the store build.
10 Questions to Ask Your Client First
- 1. What is the purpose of the store?
- 2. Would you like a standard store design or a fully custom store?
- 3. Should users have to enter a password to shop or should anyone browse and shop?
- 4. Will users have different experiences from other users in the store when it comes to product and logo choices?
- 5. Do you want to give the shopper a choice of logos?
- 6. Should the shopper be able to personalize each product?
- 7. Will there be inventory? If so, would you like to track live?
- 8. How will users pay for their orders?
- 9. Do you need Gift Certificates, Coupons, or Account Balances?
- 10. Do you need a Manager Order Approval System (MOAS)?
After going through these questions with your client, you’ll have a pretty good grasp on what they need and if you want to build the store on your own. Keep in mind – DIY or Turnkey – system training is always included. You’ll have a one-on-one training session with our experts to show you around the system and help you get started. We highly recommend taking full advantage of your training session! Bring the team. The more knowledgeable about the store your company is, the easier it is to manage, update, and sell more stores in the future. We cannot express enough how important training is to the store build.
The DIY Approach: What to expect when building the Company Store on your own.
Store Design
Store Design includes the look and feel or branding of the store. You can self-design the store by picking and customizing a theme using our theme builder without knowing a line of code. You can create a slideshow for the homepage, add images and text, and use drag and drop page builders to create additional pages such as a Contact Us page or an FAQ page. If you or a member of your team knows how to code, you have access to theme codes so you can modify the store even further.
Products
Let’s talk about products! It’s the reason people come to your store. Adding products to your store is simple. The interface is intuitive so adding the product details directly into the required fields is easier to do right in the store rather than on a spreadsheet. You can create a logical path to the products with categories and subcategories. With a multitude of product customization tools, you can specify precisely where the logos, artwork, and product personalization fields need to be placed.
Store Configuration
There’s more that goes into how the store functions than just adding the products. The behind the scenes information is what’s called the store configuration or the parameters that make the store run exactly how you and your client needs. You can set up permissions to allow individual users to see only the products, logos, and prices that apply to them. You can add sales tax calculations to each order or integrate with Avalara to pull in real-time rates. And, you can calculate shipping expenses with each order using custom, flat, or integrated rates.
Orders & Reports
Once your store starts collecting orders, what’s next? There’s an administrative area where you can keep track of all orders that have come through the store. You can edit, update, and cancel any order information. With a suite of reports and over 70 fields to choose from, you can create any report you or your client needs. You can even export orders and reports to a CSV file or integrate the store using our APIs.
Turnkey Stores: What’s included when we take on the store build.
Store Setup & Configuration
We always kick the project off with a conversation, whether that’s through a series of emails or a phone call. You’ll also receive several forms that will cover permissions, payment methods, shipping, sales tax and all the other details we need to setup and configure the store. Don’t skimp on the details, the more you provide, the better.
Design Direction & Styling
With a turnkey store, you have six hours of design time included. Our design team will work directly with you, so you have access to a designer throughout the process. It’s important to share any required brand assets (fonts, logos, colors) and any information your client provided you regarding how they want the storefront to look and feel. If they have images or a website they would like us to mimic be sure to share the URL with our designers.
How long will it take?
After we have all of the store details, we’ll put your project in motion. During this time, you can contact our Store Building and Store Art Team, regarding any tweaks or changes you would like made. Our typical store turnaround time is 1-2 weeks once we have all the details, but that can vary in both directions depending on the scope of the project and our teams’ schedule.
Adding the products, we can help!
The number and type of products differ significantly from store to store which is why we have you and your team handle the product upload. However, if you would like help adding the products we are happy to lend a hand! Our team will send you a spreadsheet, you’ll fill in the information, send it back to us, and our team will start adding those products to your store.
Want to know what the price difference is between a DIY and a Turnkey Store? Reach out to our team at marketing@brightstores.com and we’ll put you in touch with one of our Company Store experts right away!