I once had to design an online checkout process that accommodated an extremely wide range of product types: lodging, tickets, rentals, lessons, air transportation, vacation packages, season passes, lockers, retail items, travel insurance, gift cards, events, and rewards cards. To accomplish this information-architecture miracle, I first had to answer the question: is there a manageable scheme that is capable of fully describing all of the differences that could make a differences to sales and checkout for the target set of product types? Here is my scheme, which has since stood the test of time on other projects:
| What, Who, When, How | ||
| 1 | Description | What is the product? |
| 2 | Types | Are there different types, versions, or flavors of the product? |
| 3 | Options | Are there different options or customizations that effect price or product? |
| 4 | Cardinality | Single or multiple per person or per group per day or time period or trip |
| 5 | Owner/User | Is it tied to someone other than the buyer? (e.g. bought on behalf of) What information is needed for those other people? |
| 6a | Attributes | What fields and values are significant for purchasing it |
| 6b | Min Attributee for Search | What subset of the above is the minimum required to search inventory? |
| 7 | Availability | Availability (and any issues of accuracy, latency, quantity, time-bound, etc.) |
| 8 | Key User Flows | What is the basic shopping flow? (e.g., stand alone) |
| 9 | Content Required | What copy, photos, assets, etc.? |
| Relation to Other Products | ||
| 10 | Alternatives | Is comparison of alternatives required? What factors does the customer care about? (e.g., availability, date, price, etc.) |
| 11 | Incompatibility | Guidance on the compatibility of items in the order, where this is relevant |
| 12 | Complimentary products / x-sell / up-sell | Intelligent suggestions about complimentary products or accessories, and, if so, how the rules work |
| 13 | Renewals | |
| Logistics | ||
| 14 | Payment | What methods of payment? |
| 15 | Shipping | Any shipping charges and how they are calculated (or pick up/will call) |
| 16 | Delivery | Delivery times and how calculated. |
| 17 | Cancellations | Return/cancellation policy and procedure information |
| 18 | Legal | Any legal issues, terms & conditions, liability waivers, etc.? |
| 19 | Authentication/Eligibility | Any special conditions around who can buy? |
| Aggregation Characteristics | ||
| 20 | Groups | Special issues for groups |
| 21 | Bundling | Bundling and packaging with other products with non-summative pricing |
| 22 | Discounts | Any discounts, coupons, rebates, and issues of sales tax rate and how calculated. |
