The first step in setting up your new online shop is to create the departments that you are going to present to the customer. Departments (sometimes referred to as categories) help the customer to quickly find the products or services they are looking for i.e. jackets, trousers or socks. The Department Name will normally feature in a left-hand navigation that the visitor can click to move around your shop.
Below is an example of a department setup screen. You can see that this input page has been made as user friendly as possible by again using a simple template layout. This makes it easy to understand how the shop solution is set up and maintained.
You can see that this shows the department structure of the shop in a traditional ‘tree’ format using the 'yellow folders' that we are all used to in Microsoft Windows. To input information is quite straightforward:
- Select the folder that you want to edit or type a new Department Name in the blank boxes at the foot of the folder list.
- You will then be presented with an input template where you will confirm the Department Name and a description of the department to be displayed on site.
It is often best to create the majority of your departments / categories before you start entering products as this will help you understand the overall structure of your online shop. You may on reflection want to change the order of the departments - in the ePages eCommerce solution shown in the screenshot you can reorder the departments by changing the Sort Order number in the right-hand column.
It is very easy to go back and edit things later and even to create sub-departments to make things even more intuative for your customers. It is even possible with most eCommerce software to 'unpublish' departments so they are not visible on your website while you edit them. So don't worry about making mistakes and feel free to experiment with different approaches.
