Main features and How-to
Basic page setup
There's no absolute answer to the best layout of a webshop, but there are some common ways of doing things. The best solution is usually a combination of many factors - maybe the best solution for you is what your customers are used to, not the most modern or technically advanced option. Simple access to basic features will always be important, and chances are that your shop will be used more on mobile devices than on bigger screens, and you should focus accordingly.
However, this is not a design guide, but a guide to how you manage the site once it's set up - how you make changes, and which features are available.
Header
There's usually nothing to change in the header. At least not on a regular basis. The header should contain your logo, a search field, access to "my account" section, links to or basic text info about your site and company, either a link to a login page or login/password fields (all our pages use https, so having the fields there is ok), and shopping cart summary info.
Optional features include currency and language changers, as well as the possibility to switch between B2C (private) and B2B (business) versions of your site.
Footer
Multi-currency
Multi-language
Private/business client versions
In Europe, the private site usually has prices with tax, while the business site is without. The front page product display probably has a different focus as well. In theory you could have a different skin (design), different navigation, etc., but we recommend keeping the theme the same, unless you have good reasons to make a clear separation.
The frontpage
Specials
Banners
Guides
Customer specific
Specials with banners
Multiple skins
Search and Navigation
The product menu
Parameter search
Main catalog parameters
Local parameters / attributes
Free text search
Product guides
Virtual shops / brand shops
Favorites
Wish lists
Product pages
Regular products
Variable products / variants
Bundles
Configurations
Banners
Showing price / rebates
Related parts
Printing the contents
Tip a friend
Notify me when product is in stock
Microdata / JSON-LD
Datalayer / Google Analytics
Pricing
Setting prices, price matrix
Bids
Price breaks
Same product, different prices for the same customer
Excluding vendors from base price calculations
Excluding brands from vendors
Customer login
Checkout
The shopping cart
Basic features
Shopping lists
Admin features
Punchout
Extra sales
Payment options
Financing
Leasing
Credit cards
Checkout replacement solutions
Invoice
Invoice with free month
Custom payment forms
Insurance
Custom messages / forms
Address entry
Mobile site
Search
Frontpage setup
Analytics / SEO
Info pages
Custom pages
Blog / news
Contact form
Marketing
Mailing lists
Shopping cart emails
Multiple shops
Chain solutions
Multiple markets
API / ERP integration
Miscellaneous
SPF record
Hosting
Domains
HTTPS / SSL / TSL
Every page on all our sites are now encrypted.
Let's Encrypt
We use Let's Encrypt to automatically generate SSL certificates for all the sites we host.
- easy to maintain for us - we automatically request new certificates when needed
- clients don't have to create certificate requests or pay for certificates
- since certification management is automatic, expiration can be shorter than for standard certificates, increasing security. More about that here.
We currently don't support that clients bring their own certificates, but we may do so in the future. Why would anyone want that if we provide it for free? Currently, the only reason would be if you want an EV certificate and a green bar in the browser.
Free certificates is a fairly new thing, and it has mostly fans: First off, a free certificate is as good as any expensive certificate for the purpose of encryption. If you want the internet to switch to https, which virtually everybody agrees is a good thing, it probably has to be free(ish). The most common complaint (used by companies that charge money for certificates) is that free certificates makes it easier for phishing sites to get certificates to look legit. I guess you can use that argument about cheap internet access and free tools to make websites as well - and it's not a very good argument.
SNI
We use SNI - Server Name Identification - to run many https websites on a single IP address.
All modern browsers support it, but some older software may not (maybe you connect via API). If you don't know what it means, it's probably not an issue for you, but you can read about it here.