These days, many of our customers are interested in setting up online shops to sell their goods. I say, great! Online shopping is easier than ever before. This means customers may be more likely to place orders from your site—and it also means that they’ll show up with plenty of expectations of what their shopping experiences should be like. You need to be ready to deliver.

Here are five questions I ask clients before they set up an online store:

Have you defined your products in detail? Customers want to know exactly what they’re getting. That means taking great pictures—lots of them; writing good descriptions, including item sizes, colors, and features; creating SKU numbers; and clearly listing shipping options. The more detail, the better; this gives customers confidence in you—and your stuff.

Is your product subject to sales tax? This varies from product to product and state to state. Typically, you are responsible for collecting tax for states you have a presence in. For example, if your headquarters are in Ohio, but you have a warehouse in Indiana, you’ll need to collect tax on orders shipped to both states. (Read more here.)

How will you fulfill your orders? Depending on what (and how much) you’re selling, you may be able to pull inventory, pack boxes, and ship orders on your own. If that’s not an option, check into fulfillment services from companies like Amazon, or consider drop shipping from your suppliers, if they’re willing.

Do you know how you’ll handle payments? This is more complicated than you might think. Accepting credit cards online requires an SSL certificate, plus a gateway and merchant account to process transactions and deposit money into your bank account. (I recommend Authorize.net.) If you don’t want your own SSL certificate, PayPal gets the job done.

What happens when a customer has a problem? What will you do if customers receive defective products, or if they just change their minds? Do you have a set of terms and conditions customers should agree to before they buy? The cozy anonymity of the Web doesn’t mean you get to skimp on customer service. Lay out worst-case scenarios on paper beforehand to discover all the liabilities and service expectations your customers are sure to have.

If you can answer all of these questions confidently, you’re on the right track. The next step? Stock your inventory, set up shop, and watch your sales climb.

Think of building an online store of your own? Contact Atomic for more expert advice. While you’re at it, check out our swag for sale.

Designing—or redesigning—a site can be so much fun. (We understand. We get excited about this stuff, too.) But in discussions of content, design elements, and awesome interactive plans, it can be easy to lose sight of what should drive all decisions you make: what is your site’s goal?

As project manager, I’m reminding clients of this all the time. It’s my job to keep plans moving forward—and also on task. While this goal may elude you at times, it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with. Chances are, it’ll be right in line with the aims of your business overall.

For example, if you sell gourmet gluten-free cupcakes for dogs, you may want customers to visit your shop to admire your canine confections. If you’re a purveyor of bouncy castles for birthday parties, maybe you’d like interested party planners to call you up to check availability. Or maybe you want visitors to set up a meeting, request a quote, place an order online, or comment on your site’s content.

No matter what your purpose, you should define it—clearly—from the very beginning of a project. Make sure clients and design teams alike understand it, and know how to bring it to life. This ensures that every step, from sitemap to content placement, supports the goal you want to achieve.

If you want visitors to get in touch, place a simple call-to-action form on every page of the site. This makes it easy for readers to do what you want them to—without them having to search the site to find your phone number or email address.

(And please, please: keep contact forms short and sweet. If visitors have to spend too long trying to reach you, or don’t feel like giving personal information right off the bat, they’ll get out of there quick.)

When a site is built around a central objective, everything else just falls into place. It makes for on-task design teams, satisfied clients—and site visitors that find exactly what they need.

Are you sure your site is doing what it should? Contact Atomic, and tell us about your goals.