Website Discovery Process: Why Better Ecommerce Projects Start Before Design

An effectively performing online retail platform rarely emerges purely from going straight ahead with the design of the site or its development. Only after a team decides on a particular theme, plans a homepage, or starts writing code, are they likely to realize that there are some underlying issues with the website that need to be addressed to satisfy the needs of the business. A solid website discovery process is such a great asset to have here and this is a stage where it can be of the most use.

Discovery gives businesses an opportunity to look at their customers, existing website, technical setup, competitors, and commercial goals before making major decisions. At Luscious Leopard, we bring together ecommerce strategy and technical expertise through our Shopify Plus Agency, Custom Shopify Development, and broader ecommerce services to help brands make better decisions before development begins.

What is the website discovery process and why does it matter?

The website discovery process is the research and planning phase before a website project is put into design and development. It is the method through which various teams find out what they have, determine the problem, and then figure out how to solve it with their own tools.

A great deal can go wrong in the absence of discovery phase because the team can easily be working on the wrong problem. Perhaps a company is looking into a full-scale make-over, while the real trouble lies in bad navigation, difficult product search, slow speed, or a customer workflow that is not clear.

For online retailers, identifying and clarifying those issues upfront will lead to fewer unwanted changes and will ultimately make sure the website is both meeting the customers' demands and supporting the company's sales goals.

What happens when you are running a website discovery?

Running a website discovery should be more than a single meeting where a client explains what they want. It is a collaborative process that combines business information, customer insights, website data, technical requirements, and strategic thinking.

The exact process depends on the project, but discovery commonly explores:

The purpose is not to create unnecessary documentation. It is to understand what the website needs to accomplish and establish a practical direction for the project.

Who should be involved in website discovery?

Identifying the right website discovery key stakeholders is one of the main points that different teams will look up the website with a different mindset. The business owner will only look for the website to give them some kind of revenue; the marketing team would consider acquisition and SEO as their metrics, while customer care will be aware of the questions and frustrations experienced by buyers on a daily basis.

Developers and technical teams can pinpoint which integrations are needed and what technical aspects the platform is constrained by. Designers are able to share their insights into what users would be most likely to do and how that might cause better experience for them, and ecommerce teams can outline features that relate to merchandising, product, and day-to-day operations.

If you get the right people to take part from the very beginning, you really decrease the risk of the team discovering essential requirements only after the development work has started. Also, it leads to a greater sense of collective responsibility for the outcomes of the project among the people involved.

Not all employees need to be part of the stakeholder group. It is just people who can quite a bit add to the project with their understanding of the core elements of the business, customer, technology, and commercial objectives that are needed.

How does web discovery influence Shopify development?

A strong web discovery phase can significantly influence the way a Shopify project is approached. Instead of starting with a predefined solution, development decisions can be based on actual business requirements.

This makes discovery especially valuable for larger Shopify projects where design, development, SEO, marketing, and operational requirements need to work together.

Conclusion: Better discovery leads to better ecommerce decisions

A website discovery process is not a way to halt a project. It is basically making sure that through the design and development phases time, budget and resources are well directed to address the right issues.

Ecommerce brands that uncover business goals, customer behavior, technical needs, and stakeholder expectations early on will be better positioned to eliminate doubts and build more purpose-driven websites. Besides that, discovery lays a groundwork for collaboration and consensus when a project is at the phase of higher complexity.

At Luscious Leopard, we see ecommerce projects through the lens that technology implementation is merely part of the answer. From Shopify Plus and custom build to SEO, performance advertising, and customer experience, our goal is to map out and connect the web to business aims.

If you are thinking about setting up a new Shopify website, getting your existing one redesigned or moving it entirely or doing a big ecommerce change, a good discovery process will allow you to work out your requirements more clearly with confidence.

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