Do You Know More Than Your Boss When It Comes to eCommerce? Read This Article to Find Out

eCommerce is much more than merely having a web site created. The following checklist outlines some of the issues to be considered when developing an eCommerce strategy.

Why not see how many both you and your boss have thought of so far?

The following checklist, while providing general issues to consider, is not intended as an exhaustive eCommerce plan or methodology. We hope, however, that it will serve as an introduction to some of the main issues to be considered before launching your eCommerce venture.

Review Your Perspective Of Your Organisation

In the day to day hustle and bustle, we can all get caught up in specific areas of need; we end up not being able to see the forest for the trees. As a good eCommerce venture will cover most areas of you organisation (not just sales & marketing), it's important to look again at your organisation's focus.

Develop A Vision Based On Your Refreshed Perspective

Having gained a new perspective, you must now decide what strategies and goals would be useful to your business (if you're not familiar with the Internet, research will be required here).

For instance; do you wish to sell online? Order from suppliers online? Train online? Network? Professionally develop staff? Maintain regular contact with your clients? Provide customer support material?

Create An eCommerce Team And Appoint eCommerce Champions

For the greatest chance of success, all areas of your organisation should be involved with the planning of your eCommerce strategy. This should ensure maximum use of eCommerce throughout your organisation.

eCommerce champions come from your staff. They are there to provide guidance and will have the fire, enthusiasm, and interest to do the work. It takes these "eCommerce Champions" to keep you focussed on the opportunities of eCommerce for your organisation.

Research Competitors, Clients, And Others In Your Industry

It always pays to know what others are doing: for inspiration (if it's a good idea), avoidance (if it's a bad idea) and affiliation (if it's a combined industry effort).

At this point please pre-warn all members of the eCommerce team to avoid thinking "we just need a web site that looks like that one". By all means make a note of what appealed about the website, but don't assume you can duplicate it.

Here we're not talking about copyright or intellectual-property issues; we're talking about a much more fundamental concern: their web site is the natural product of their eCommerce model; yours should grow naturally from the model you're developing, otherwise it won't fit your organisation.

Evaluate Ideas, Methods And Techniques

Based on your new vision, you'll need to start planning the actual technologies, methods and services required to realise that vision.

For example, if your vision identified a preference for keeping in regular contact with clients, now's the time to identify exactly how. Place a newsletter on the web and rely on them to check for it? Send them email telling them it's been published? Send them a newsletter via email instead of using the web? Publish a much larger magazine (eZine) on the web? How often to publish a newsletter or eZine?

Review Current IT Structure And Stocktake Staff Skills

Once you've determined exactly what you'd like to do, you need to investigate the gap between your plans and your resources; and there will be a gap.

Say, for example, you decide to publish a newsletter to let your clients know of new products and services, upcoming events and, to add value for them, 2 or 3 useful articles within your general industry.

Some of the resourcing impacts on your organisation could be:

Can your staff actually write an email newsletter?
Or should you gather the material and outsource the writing?
How much time is required to gather the material and write a weekly newsletter?
How much for a fortnightly one?
Where does the material come from?
Who's responsible for its collation?
Who's the backup if they're away?
How much training is required?
What are the copyright issues if it's third party material?
Could you affiliate with others in complimentary areas to develop a combined publication?
Who co-ordinates that and how?
Will your existing IT infrastructure support large mailing lists?
Will you upgrade or use an Internet-based mailing agency?

As you can see, a simple idea can impact an organisation considerably! A sure recipe for eCommerce failure is overlooking some of these impacts, causing good ideas to fall flat because they can't be maintained.

Strategic Planning, Budgeting, Project Scheduling, Project Management, Testing, Combined Marketing Strategy And Launch

All of these items are beyond the scope of this article.

But once you start considering some of the effort required to work through the above, you'll be glad of the shorter checklist!

Getting Further Help

Naturally, Commercial Internet Strategies, Australia are always available to help. We use our own methodologies to improve the success of your eCommerce project, and use our knowledge to help with innovative ideas. Contact Us if you'd like more assistance.

Other high value resources include:

eCommerce websites
Sites specialising in eCommerce tips and strategies.
eCommerce Email lists

Subscribing to these lists will provide lots of material to consider. From successful techniques, to services, to anecdotal experiences.

Other Organisations

If you know of other organisations in areas similar to yours who have embarked on eCommerce, perhaps they'd be willing to share their experiences and discoveries with you.

Marketing 2000