What an ecommerce site needs: 12 features before you run ads

TL;DR

• Before you spend anything on advertising, an online store needs twelve things in place: everything from a product page that reads well on a phone to a thank-you page with conversion tracking attached.
• Payments and shipping each carry their own paperwork and approval time. Start those applications alongside the build so a campaign never stalls waiting on a gateway.
• If you cannot tell where an order came from, you are buying clicks rather than revenue. Install measurement before the ads go live, not after.

Core features

1. A complete product page. Photos from several angles, a description that names the problem the product solves, a clear price, stock status, and the returns policy placed exactly where the buyer starts hesitating.

2. Categories and filters. Filters by group, price band and attribute are how you shorten the path from a category page to the right item — especially on a phone screen, where each scroll reveals only a couple of products.

3. On-site search. People who already know what they want will type it. A search box that returns wrong or empty results is an order lost in silence.

4. A cart that keeps its state. A buyer adds something, leaves, comes back on another device — and the cart is still there.

5. A short checkout. Every extra required field is another reason to abandon. Allow guest checkout, and ask only for what is genuinely needed to deliver the goods.

6. Order and inventory management. You need to see new orders, change their status, print a delivery note and know what stock remains — in one screen, not across three separate files.

7. An order confirmation by email or message. Buyers need proof the moment they press the button. Skip it and your phone line fills up with "has my order gone through?".

8. It has to work on a phone. Check the device report in your own ad account to see what your buyers actually browse on, then place a test order on that kind of device before switching any campaign on.

Payments and shipping in Vietnam

9. Payment connections. The methods in Vietnam are QR bank transfer, domestic cards, international cards and e-wallets. Each gateway has its own document requirements and its own approval time, so start that paperwork in parallel with the build rather than waiting until the site is finished.

10. Shipping and cash-on-delivery. Decide up front which courier you use, how the fee is calculated by region, and whether you collect payment on delivery. A shipping fee that only appears at the last step is a completely avoidable reason to lose a cart: all it takes is saying so earlier.

Both of these belong on their own line in a quote, because the work involved depends on how many gateways and couriers you want connected.

Measuring conversions

11. Wire GA4 and your ad pixel to the right events. Not just page views: you need view product, add to cart, begin checkout and purchase. That chain is what shows you where buyers drop out.

12. A dedicated thank-you page for completed orders. A separate URL after checkout is both the place you attach the conversion event and the place you tell the customer what happens next.

Once all twelve are done, place a test order yourself and check it appears correctly in the reports. If it does not, do not turn the ads on.

Common mistakes

Switching ads on before measurement is installed, then spending a month unable to tell which campaign produced which order. The money is gone either way, and that month's data cannot be reconstructed afterwards.

Using product photos borrowed from the supplier. Images identical to a dozen other shops give a buyer nothing to tell you apart by, and give image search nothing new to index.

Hiding the shipping fee until the final step. A total that would have been perfectly acceptable up front can still be refused when it turns up as a late surprise.

Nobody watching the order queue. The site takes orders all night, but an order left untouched until the next morning has handed the customer a whole evening in which to buy elsewhere.

Inventing product reviews. Beyond the legal exposure, a run of comments written in one voice and posted on one day is easy to spot. No reviews is a better position than fake ones.

Reference costs

At Temei an ecommerce website starts from 10,000,000₫ and is delivered in 15–25 business days, covering the category structure, cart, order flow, payment and courier connections, measurement setup and admin training. The price excludes VAT, the domain and hosting.

Two recurring costs sit outside the build. Payment gateways and couriers charge according to their own published schedules — read the rate card of whichever provider you choose. And if you have nobody technical on hand, the care plan from 500,000₫ per month is how you keep the site running while a campaign is spending money.

Frequently asked questions

I already sell on a marketplace — do I still need my own site?

The two channels do different jobs. A marketplace lends you its existing traffic; your own site gives you the customer data, control of the experience, and somewhere to send ads that does not display a competitor next to your product.

How many payment methods should I start with?

Enough not to lose orders. To find that number, open one method first — ask each gateway what documents and approval time it needs, then pick the one you can satisfy now — and count how many customers ask for something else. Adding gateways against real data means you are not waiting on several applications at once for customers you may not have.

How long does an ecommerce site take to build?

At Temei, 15–25 business days from the point where product photos, descriptions and policy text are ready. Product photos and descriptions are the part of the schedule that sits with you rather than with the studio, so start gathering them today.

If you are preparing to open and would rather have all twelve items built in than added later, the ecommerce website service from 10,000,000₫ sets out the detail: cart, checkout, courier connections, conversion tracking, and admin training so your team runs the catalogue after handover.