Ecommerce project brief template

What this template is, and who it's for

This is a discovery brief for an online store, a new build or a replatform. It's for agencies, studios and freelancers scoping ecommerce work on Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento or a headless setup, who need the client's requirements pinned down before pricing. Ecommerce projects go wrong in the details, payment methods, tax rules, a messy product export, so the brief exists to surface those early.

Fill it in with the client. Half its value is the questions it forces you both to answer.

How to use it

1. 1Copy the block below as Markdown or PDF.
2. 2Work through it with the client, especially the platform, integrations and migration sections,

where the risk hides.

1. 1Keep the In scope / Out of scope, Revisions and Contingency lines; ecommerce carries

more unknowns than a standard site, so the buffer matters.

1. 1Use the completed brief to build an accurate quote or scope of work.

The template

# Ecommerce Project Brief, [Client Company]

Prepared by: [Your Name / Studio]
Date: [DD Month YYYY]

1. Business context

• What you sell: [product types]
• Current situation: [existing store / platform, or first store]
• Goal for this project: [e.g. replatform, grow international sales, reduce admin]
• Target launch: [date / season, mind peak trading periods]

2. Platform

• Preferred platform: [Shopify / WooCommerce / Magento 2 / Shopify Headless / undecided]
• Reason / constraints: [existing skills, budget, scale, ERP tie-in]
• Hosting: [platform-hosted / self-hosted, who is responsible]

3. Catalogue

• Number of products / variants: [approx]
• Product data source: [spreadsheet / existing store / supplier feed]
• Categories & navigation: [rough structure]
• Rich content per product: [images, video, size guides, specs]
• Pricing rules: [tiers, sale prices, currencies]

4. Checkout & payments

• Payment methods: [cards, PayPal, Apple/Google Pay, buy-now-pay-later]
• Shipping: [carriers, rates, zones, free-shipping thresholds]
• Tax: [VAT handling, regions, thresholds]
• Accounts: [guest checkout, registered accounts, both]
• Discounts / promotions: [codes, automatic offers, gift cards]

5. Integrations

• Payments gateway: [Stripe / provider]
• Shipping / fulfilment: [3PL, carrier, print-on-demand]
• Accounting / ERP: [Xero, QuickBooks, NetSuite, …]
• Email / marketing: [Klaviyo, Mailchimp, …]
• Analytics & tracking: [GA4, pixels, consent management]
• Other: [reviews, search, subscriptions, loyalty]

6. Migration (if replatforming)

• Migrating from: [platform / version]
• To migrate: [ ] products [ ] customers [ ] orders [ ] content/blog [ ] reviews
• URL redirects: [301 map required, protect SEO]
• Data condition: [clean / needs tidying, who does it]

7. In scope

• [Platform build, theme/design, catalogue setup for n products]
• [Checkout, payments and shipping configuration as above]
• [Integrations listed in Section 5]
• [Migration items ticked in Section 6]
• One round of pre-launch testing and go-live

8. Out of scope (available as add-ons)

• Product photography and copywriting
• Ongoing marketing, SEO campaigns or paid ads
• Data cleansing beyond [agreed effort]
• Integrations or features not listed above
• Post-launch support and maintenance

9. Revisions

Includes [2] rounds of revisions at the design and build stages. Further rounds are billed at [£rate]/hour, agreed in writing first.

10. Contingency

A contingency of [15%] (£[…]) covers reasonable unknowns, messy product data, integration quirks, migration surprises. Drawn on only with written approval; unused contingency is not charged.

11. Assumptions

• Product data and images supplied by [date] in an agreed format.
• Access to the current store, payment and shipping accounts provided by [date].
• Third-party app, theme and transaction fees are the Client's cost.

Agreed by [Client Company]: __________________ Date: __________

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What makes a good ecommerce brief

• Settle the platform early, with reasons. The platform decides cost, capability and constraints

for everything after it. Record why it was chosen so no one relitigates it mid-build.

• Treat migration as its own project. Moving products, customers, orders and, critically, URL

redirects is where replatforms overrun. A migration checklist and an honest note on data condition save weeks.

• Get specific about checkout. Payments, shipping zones and tax are deceptively deep. Vague

answers here become expensive change requests once real orders start failing.

• List the integrations by name. "Connect to their systems" is not a scope. Each named

integration is a unit of work with its own risk; an unnamed one is a surprise waiting to land.

• Budget a real contingency. Ecommerce carries more unknowns than a brochure site, supplier

feeds, tax edge cases, dirty data. A stated buffer is prudent, not padding.