If you want to start an ecommerce site this year, Don’t start trying to find a shopping cart solution first as you may be putting the cart before the horse. According to an article on e-commerceconsulting.com, here are some signs that you’ve put the shopping cart before the horse.

1. You haven’t decided what you’ll be selling in your online store. You need to determine the products, how many of them you’ll carry, how frequently they’ll change, how complex they are to sell, etc.

2. If you have decided what to sell, you haven’t looked at how competitors are doing it , or you aren’t absolutely sure as to why someone would buy from you vs. a competitor. Since just about everything is being sold online already, what will make your ecommerce site a more attractive option to customers?

3. Do you have a clear picture of your target customer or a plan and budget for attracting the right visitors to your site. Search engines will not just find you. It takes money and work to get qualified traffic to a website.

4. You’re not sure how you’ll get the photos and product descriptions for the products you’ll be selling, or who will be doing the ongoing merchandising and updates. Doing this part well can mean the difference between a professional site and one that looks and reads like an amateur just threw the site together. If you’re planning on carrying a wide assortment of products, don’t underestimate the workload here or the tools you’ll need to handle it efficiently.

5. You don’t know how you’ll handle customer service inquiries, who will take the calls and answer emails or how you’ll keep track of them. Ecommerce efforts should not overlook the need for human contact with web orders. It is so important to figure out how you will make it easy for customers to contact you and what you will need in terms of resources and infrastructure to deal with it.

6. You are not sure whether you’re going to fulfill orders yourself or outsource the function. Think about the volume you’ll be doing and what you need to be able to manage, process, and fulfill orders, both at the start and as your business grows. See number 9 below.

7. You don’t have policies and a cost structure regarding shipping and returns. This is a highly competitive and rapidly evolving area of ecommerce. There is flat rate shipping, expedited options, pre-paid returns, and shipping promotions, etc. There is a long list of options and logistical issues.

8. You don’t know who will be designing or developing your website, and/or you’re not certain about all of the content and features your site will need. Also, you should think about how frequently you plan to make cosmetic and technical changes to your site and how those will get done.

9. You’re not sure how much business you will do, so you don’t know how much you can afford to spend on your ecommerce site. The key is to start with a plan. Start with the fundamentals. How much traffic will come to your site? How many of those visitors will place an order? How much money will those visitors spend and how many units will they buy? This may answer many of the questions above, such as: Is it feasible to handle fulfillment yourself? What kind of of budget do you need to bring the right number of visitors to your site?