Module 12: Assignment 6: Create Your Online Store

Now that you have planned out your fictional e-business, it is time to start building your online store! For all new accounts associated with your e-store, use the Google/Gmail account that you created in Lab 5. By the end of this assignment, your entire e-store will be completely set up (except for payment options, since your e-business is purely fictional).

Requirements:

1. Create a free account at https://freewebstore.com (Links to an external site.). This website will let you set up a free e-store. Most of your online store options will be available in the menu after you login. Be sure to set the store URL in the settings to something applicable to your e-business. The URL format will be https://www.freewebstore.org/storename (Links to an external site.).
2. Choose a store theme or create your own. There are pre-made themes, or you can edit theme colors, fonts, and images in the Theme Editor.
3. Obtain and edit product images. Either take your own images or download royalty-free images from https://www.pexels.com/ (Links to an external site.). If you need to crop images, use free or available software to do so. Microsoft Paint and Window’s Image Editor are typically already installed on Windows systems, and Mac computers can natively crop images as well. If you feel like getting fancy and have Adobe Photoshop, you are welcome to it. If you do not have Photoshop, GIMP (https://www.gimp.org/) is a free alternative software that works on all major operating systems.
4. Create a page to post your Terms of Service/Privacy Policy you created from Lab 4. Be sure to also provide your Gmail address that you created for this course somewhere on the site as contact information.
5. Create 5-20 products in your store. Each product should have an associated product image, price and description. You may decide how to organize the products, whether be into categories or all of them on one product page.
6. Add an animated slideshow to your homepage featuring your products. The freewebstore.org (Links to an external site.) options allow you to create a slideshow. Feature approximately 3-5 products or offers in your slideshow. There should be a description for each slideshow item, and each one should link to a product category or specific product.
7. Create a Google Analytics account for your store. Using your previously created Gmail account, login to Google Analytics and create a “view” for your e-store. Then follow the instructions in the freewebstore.org (Links to an external site.) administration under Marketing > Google Tools > Google Analytics to integrate it with your e-store.
8. Share online resources you have found, tips for using the store dashboard, and other related topics in the Discussion 12 board.
9. Once your e-store is done, get at least 7 different individuals to go to your e-store URL to test it out. Have them go through the interface and look at each of the pages and product items. Their activity will be recorded in Google Analytics. You may have your classmates or other people you know do the testing.
10. After the testing has occurred, login to Google Analytics to pull a report.
    1. After logging in to Google Analytics, go to the main view for your e-store.
    2. Go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages
    3. Ensure the date range spans from the first date of publish to the current date. This should encompass all of the traffic from your testers.
    4. Make sure all pages in your store are showing in the results.
    5. Export these results into a PDF.

After completing the above tasks, you will prepare your lab for submission:

• Write a two page reflection on your experience with building the e-store. What did you discover along the way? What were some of the most important aspects to set up? What was the most challenging aspect? Did you add anything to the store that was not suggested in the instructions?
• Provide the URL to your published store at the top of your paper. Your store will be viewed from this link as part of the grading process.
• Attach the PDF of your store’s Google Analytics results from task #10 to the assignment submission.