1. 12 Tips for Designing an excellent Checkout process by Smashing Magazine provides excellent tips on how you can make your checkout process more user-friendly. It also provides a gallery of existing checkout processes.
2. 25 Beginner eCommerce Design and SEO tips is an essential read if you want your site to top the search engine rankings.
3. Shopping carts gallery shows examples and good practices in designing your shopping cart.
4. How to A/B Test landing pages is a must read if you do online advertising.
5. E-commerce call to action design tips for tips on improving your conversion rates.

Once you have decent exposure great design can be worth a lot of money because it helps build trust, and increases your visitor value…allowing you to pay more for traffic and sell your products + services at a higher price point.

- Aaron Wall, SEO Book

Sony Life is a Philippine insurance company that caters to corporate insurance packages. Optimind is responsible for the overall web design, web development and flash animation.

To design a successful website, here are some key factors that you should take in mind:

• Usability, Site Structure and Navigation - It should be easy to navigate and find information on your site.
  
• SEO/SEM - You should appear on search engine results to get more targeted traffic.
  
• Content & Copy - Your content should persuade and support call to actions.
• Web Design and Layout - The design of your pages should support your brand and should be pleasant to the eye.
  
• Accessibility - Your site should be accessible even for the disabled.
• Build Quality - How long does it take the site to load? Does it display the same look throughout all browsers?

Check out Website Grader to find out if your website is optimized for internet marketing (and seo of course).

myOptimind.com’s website grade is 91/100

I found this helpful link through Smiley Cat’s Web Design Blog. The link basically provides you with a checklist so you won’t forget the important details in designing a website.