Talking about eCommerce, the plethora (Pandora) of platforms available today gives both challenges and opportunities for business executives looking for solutions that align with customer expectations and their business objectives. Isn’t it more like our job as Business Consultants to educate our clients and help them adopt and stay on top of the bargain? After all, we are a special species of ecommerce and we know what usually works and what always works. There are different types of businesses, distributors, manufacturers, and companies, each with their unique functional requirements. Understanding what type of business you are and what type of end users come to your platform can be a good starting point. Here are 3 major practices for ensuring ecommerce platform that fits your goals and objectives. Note: There are hundreds to dozen hundreds tips, tricks and hacks. Following just happen to be on top of the list.
What’s Your eCommerce Strategy – Do You Even Have it
There is an old saying that goes as: Don’t dive into it without knowing its depth first. Believe it or not, 60 percent of ecommerce start-ups fail or fade in their 2nd or 3rd business year. Why? Because, leaders’ little to no understanding of digital ecosystem, poorly designed ecommerce stores, mis-marketing, wrong strategies for post-launch support. What else a business needs to fail! So, can you really avoid all this trouble and loss? Yes, you can avoid it all, by creating a SOLID (seriously we mean it in caps) eCommerce Roadmap. Yes, eCommerce roadmap is bible for you and other stakeholders that answers all the in’s and out’s of your ecommerce business, allowing you to identify the open opportunities, the challenges lying around the business roads, the tools and technologies needed for system implementation, resources required to turn things into revenue , so on.
- Ensure platform functionality meets the intended function. During platform selection, make sure individual functionality (e.g. Wishlists) meets the intended business or customer use. If not, customization will be required, which will likely add to project costs and timeline. Some of the best Ecommerce platforms in use today are Magento Store Development, Shopify and Woocommerce based Ecommerce solutions.
- Build an ecommerce roadmap that spans a minimum of 18-24 months. Define critical platform needs for launch. Identify subsequent channel improvements to be implemented over post-launch project phases. This provides two crucial benefits: it enables incremental revenue increases from a quicker launch cycle to help defray the costs of subsequent phases and provides the flexibility to react to changing market needs or conditions.
- Create a Change Management plan that addresses operational and organizational issues and considers internal and external stakeholders. The way things have always been done is not always the best way. Look for opportunities to improve and simplify business processes.
The Hands and Minds Behind – Your Internal Team
After launch, what comes next? The most powerful and the most expensive ecommerce software, powered by the best ecommerce store development company of the world wouldn’t help a hair if people operating it do not know their way pretty well around the platform. Even in its barest forms, the implementation of ecommerce platforms requires diligent execution from your executive team, marketing, merchandising, customer services, admin and IT departments. There’s no room for noobs in this whole eCommerce bargain. eCommerce Professionals, however, can handle these problems fairly easily, and reduce the risks involved in your ecommerce projects.
See Things Through Bigger Lens – Be Future Ready
It’s frightening to see how quickly or blindly companies adopt the solutions and strategies that fix some problems while at the same time, opening the doors for newer ones. It’s something like a doctor who prescribes his patients to drink because they can’t digest – who knows what you would call it. What’s good in such cases is to stay open for customizations or even re-platforming if required – beware no company wants to migrate to another platform for fun. It’s a major move and is advised only in cases where saying Good Bye to the existing solution is the only way. At RED SIGNAL, we never lose our sight from the bigger picture. Every time we work with our clients, we encourage them to address immediate issues by innovative technology hacks, and not at the loss of flexibility and predictability.
Give it Your Personal Time and Care – Some things Money Can’t Always Solve
Finally, stay patient. Only Hollywood can solve challenges overnight. In our ecommerce ecosystem, it takes time to solve things, get the business on the right footings and then keep it strong there. Engage your team members very actively, make them a single unit working in the same direction. And when you have done it, thank our experts for sharing their experience with you. Cheers
Bonus TIP
Online retail is in continuous flux – always changing. Merchandisers and retailers are realizing that it’s more viable business model and more profitable too. Meanwhile, users are getting technology-adaptive too. This is the present and this not going to change in times coming ahead. It’s not only the small/midsized brands and retailers who can’t afford big retail space, retail dinosaurs like Indigo/Chapters in Canada are also closing stores and moving into online ecosystem. Perhaps, it’s your turn now. Pay very close attention to small details and avoid the mistakes that 90% others have and are making. In case of any help and assistance, you know where to find us. A phone call, a friendly message, an email you can reach us by any means you like.