A store that takes a test order, measured against a marketplace

The situation

Before building anything, you will decide whether a store of your own beats a marketplace at your expected volume. Then you will build the store skeleton properly — five products, trust pages, payments with COD handled honestly — run a complete test order as the seller, measure and improve mobile speed and checkout, and set the weekly scorecard that tells you whether your problem is traffic or conversion.

What you'll be able to show

• Compare marketplace commission against subscription plus advertising, with your own numbers
• Build a store skeleton a buyer trusts, and check it on a phone
• Configure payments including COD with a written confirmation rule
• Measure speed and checkout, change one thing, and record the before and after

What you need

• A Shopify trial (or any store platform with a free trial)
• Five real products with photos, variants and stock counts
• PageSpeed Insights and your own phone

Tasks

1. 1Store or marketplace?
   Write the comparison for your situation: what a marketplace charges in commission per month at your expected volume, against subscription plus the advertising needed to replace that traffic. Decide: store now, or Daraz first and the store second.
   A correct result: Two monthly figures and a decision that follows from them.
2. 2The skeleton
   Five real products with proper photos, variants and inventory counts; two collections; a customised free theme; the four trust pages written properly — About with a real location, Contact with phone and WhatsApp link, Shipping, Returns. Open it on a phone and fix what looks wrong.
   A correct result: A store with five products, two collections and four trust pages, checked on a phone.
3. 3Payments, including COD
   Configure at least one electronic method plus COD as a manual method, with your written order-confirmation rule attached to COD. Run a complete test order through your own checkout and record what you receive as the seller.
   A correct result: A completed test order, the seller's order email, and the COD confirmation rule in writing.
4. 4Speed and checkout, before and after
   Measure the mobile PageSpeed score; apply the three speed fixes; measure again. Then walk your own checkout on a phone as a buyer, count every field and click from product page to confirmed order, and remove one step.
   A correct result: Two speed scores, a click count before and after, and the step you removed.
5. 5The traffic plan
   With real numbers: paid budget for month one and the cost per order it must achieve; organic commitment (posts per week, about what); one search phrase you could realistically rank for; how you will collect customer contacts from order one. Start the organic half today.
   A correct result: A plan with numbers, and the first organic post published.
6. 6The weekly scorecard
   Set up the scorecard with the seven numbers and fill it for one real week (tiny numbers are fine). Answer: is the problem traffic or conversion? Write the one action that follows and do it this week.
   A correct result: Seven numbers, the diagnosis, and the action taken.

What to hand in

The comparison, the store URL (or screenshots), the test order proof, the speed and checkout numbers, the traffic plan, and the filled scorecard with the action.

How it is marked