E-Commerce Website Content Guidelines
Although an e-commerce website shares most of a regular website’s content, there are differences that need proper planning and implementation. This is why we have prepared this separate guide for creating and submitting content exclusively for an e-commerce website.
These guidelines will help you prepare and submit quality content that is easy to understand and integrate in your e-commerce website.
Disclaimer
At any time, please only submit content that you legally own, or otherwise have the legal permission or authority to use on your website.
We will not accept for including, or help you include images and other media that violate a third-party’s intellectual property rights.
E-commerce web development projects will only be accepted if you have a registered business that follows any legal structure in New Zealand or your country/territory of operation/residence.
In addition, we will also not accept or work with:
- Content that displays or promotes any form of nudity, or that may otherwise be classified as “adult content”, including advertisements for products on your own or a third-party e-commerce website, or content that is considered generally unsuitable for an audience under the age of 18. This includes any content that is “restricted” to an audience of an age greater than a specific age according to New Zealand Law;
- Content that displays, supports, intends to, or can incite violence, hatred, or crime based on (including but not limited to:
- race;
- religion;
- political affiliation or beliefs;
- sexual orientation;
- gender; or
- membership of a particular social group
- Contents of or information about products not allowed to be sold in New Zealand, including products that are “controlled” or “restricted” for sale in New Zealand or the country of your residence or registration of your business;
- Contents of or information about medicines, both prescription and non-prescription, unless you have the necessary license to engage in such trade, and your license is verifiable with a regulatory authority in New Zealand or the country, state, or territory where your business is registered;
- Contents of or information relating to illicit drugs that are prohibited from possession and/or use in New Zealand or the country or territory where your business is registered;
- Contents of or information relating to self-harm, including the sale of items marketed for self-harm;
- Contents of or information relating to the design, construction, or use of explosive devices or other devices capable of causing physical harm to another person, animal, or property;
- Contents that have the potential to disrupt the national security of New Zealand or another country;
- Contents or products that contains any form of child pornography, child sexual abuse, or abuse in general; and
- Any content that is prohibited from being published on a website or online publication under New Zealand Law.
Where required by law, we will fully cooperate with any law enforcement agencies in both New Zealand and other countries, which includes handing over your information and the contents you provide.
Types of Content
When we are working on your e-commerce website, we will request various types of content. These are discussed below.
Product Images
Images of your products help your customers make decisions about purchasing or inquiring about them and so are important parts of your e-commerce website.
We understand that some products may have multiple images. In a usual WordPress and WooCommerce setup, we can have a primary product image and a product image gallery that contains the other images of your product. Usually, these are variations of your products or other perspectives.
If you do not specify a product image, a placeholder image will be used instead, which looks something like this:
When you do include a product image with its description, please name your product image files with the product name or the SKU, for example: 198833278_Blue.png, etc.
Image Resolution
Where possible, we encourage using images that are at least 1920 pixels wide. This allows your image to display properly and is therefore important for a better user experience.
If your images are low resolution, they may appear distorted or blurred/pixelated when viewed on different devices and if they are zoomed in, such as using standard product image hover and zoom features.
Image Format
We can only accept and use the following image file formats:
- .WEBP (Recommended)
- .PNG
- .JPG/.JPEG
- .GIF
If you provide an image in another format, it may not be parsed and displayed properly on some CMS.
Image Aspect Ratio
The best aspect ratio for product images is 1:1 or square. This allows the image to sit perfectly in the predefined layouts and also make other useful features more pleasing to use, such as “hover to zoom”, etc.
Text
Usually, the text part of an e-commerce website contains the following:
Product Description and Specifications
Product description and specifications are important parts of your products. They give more information to your potential customers and helps them make decisions about purchasing your product.
Please use the below as a guideline when crafting your product descriptions and specifications:
Formatting Your Text (General Guidelines)
Please refer to this help article for general guidelines on formatting your text properly.
File Format
We will only accept your text content in .PDF file format. Please refer to your word processor manual for more information on how to export or save your files in .PDF format.
