4 min read
E-commerce is more today than buying or selling online. It involves multiple digital work streams and can include CRM, mobile, portals, email, social, call centers, campaign tools, SEO, content management, product catalog and merchandising, reporting and analytics, and payment gateways.
In today’s online world, operating an E-commerce solution is table stakes for companies in the distribution industry. The challenge is to constantly evolve, improve, and optimize your e-commerce ecosystem. Efforts that drove traffic and revenue in the past may no longer be working. Many organizations lack the resources, skills, and time to optimize each aspect of their e-commerce initiative. Optimized e-commerce requires a continually evolving blend of digital marketing, customer experience, product merchandising, and content creation. All of which are driven by analytics to drive testing and iteration.
If you implemented your e-commerce solution more than four years ago, you would want to explore implementing the latest version of your vendor's solution and assess other software vendor solutions as these systems have evolved considerably. There is a spectrum of e-commerce platforms from small/starter, mid-tier, and enterprise. You might have outgrown your current platform depending on where your current system is on the spectrum. More features, better integration, and cloud offerings are what you’ll find in the current solution options as you move up the offering spectrum.
Recently, we helped an organization assess and implement a new solution because they implemented a highly customized e-commerce solution over 7 years ago. Unfortunately, the software customizations prohibited them from upgrading to the vendor’s most current version to the point where they were 3 major releases behind. They were on software maintenance and entitled to the latest version but could not easily move to it because they highly customized the older version. All of the features (plus additional) they implemented in their custom solution were now available in several vendor platforms. Additionally, best-in-class security protocols, deployment, and integration options were also available. The digital ecosystem had evolved significantly and they were not able to keep up. Liberty Technology Advisors helped them select and implement a new best-in-class system without customization. So, they can evolve their solution with the vendor saving time, money, and minimized risk.
Understand the opportunity -
Whether you’re just starting out or trying to take your e-commerce business to the next level, begin with an analysis of the current state. This means a review of your current brand strength, web traffic, conversion rates, online pricing issues, competitor success, search engine opportunities and technology implications. Only after you create a realistic vision for the scope and scale of the opportunity, can you start to develop the right strategic approach. If you haven’t assessed these issues recently, you may be missing some opportunities and competitive challenges.
Explore the business model and develop your business requirements -For success in e-commerce, you must deliver best-in-class customer experience. That means the creation of not only an elegant online shopping experience, but also a responsive customer call center, timely and error-free fulfillment, and an ongoing digital communication strategy that builds loyalty. Develop requirements and capabilities in each of these areas. Assess which if any aspects you should attempt to manage in-house vs. outsource. There are outsourced solutions for customer service, fulfillment, technology implementation, site design, online promotions management, traffic building and content strategy development in any combination you want.
Identify the software investment -
There is a range of investment models for the software. There is purchase and subscription software acquisition options. You also have options on where you want to host the site and run the software. Software as a Service (SaaS), Managed Service Providers (MSP's) can remove the burden of operating and managing the software. There are a wide variety of solutions under each of these models across a broad breadth of technology platforms.
Assess your integration strategy options -
What existing ERP system and in-house tools and technologies will you need to integrate with? Does your E-commerce solution offer middleware integration tools? Do you need to supplement your operational solution with additional capabilities, e.g., shipping and transportation? Most organizations will look for software approaches that reduce the number of internal platforms to be managed. IT departments are overrun with disparate tools and technologies that don’t talk to each other. Marketing departments are increasingly frustrated with not being able to manage content and product information seamlessly between corporate sites and e-commerce shopping systems without extensive programming. The best-in-class software tools available today integrate CMS, shopping cart, personalization, marketing tools and analytics all under a single platform.
Assess your requirements against solutions in the marketplace -
If you’ve done the work above, there will only be a few options that line up with your technology needs and business model. Research organizations like Gartner and Forrester can offer additional insights into many of the software vendors.
Explore implementation partners -
Your implementation partner is even more valuable and important to a successful integration than the system manufacturer. When selecting an implementation partner, consider the type of partner that your firm needs. There are technical based partners who focus on systems integration and programming, there are digital agency partners that will focus more on design, SEO and customer experience, and there are business-based partners that focus more on consulting, project management and strategic direction. There is no shortage of implementation partners but finding the right fit for your environment is a key to success.
Develop your implementation strategy -
Together with your consulting partner, it’s time to prioritize the site’s overall requirements, frame your outsourcing strategy, determine the build approach and develop time frames. At this stage, you should also determine the budget allocations to branding, web development, content creation and traffic building efforts over a multi-year period to finalize an approach to overall growth and funding.
Design and build the e-commerce website -
More companies are embracing an agile approach to building their sites. An Agile methodology offers two distinct advantages. First, it allows for rapid development of usable software so that the client can see the site evolve and develop it as a working tool along the way, rather than waiting until the end of the project development process. Second, it allows clients to change their minds along the way. In the typical 4-8 month implementation period for projects like these, the business situation can change. By consistently reassessing top priorities and building the most important pieces first, you reduce the risk of having to change course mid-stream or waste precious time and dollars on throw-away work.
Launch your site and learn from it -
Your site is live. It’s time to switch over from build to operate mode. It takes time to get into an operational rhythm. So, make sure special attention is given to cross-checking the e-commerce ecosystem is operating correctly. Finally, you’ll realize that this program will require an ever-increasing amount of your team’s time and your company’s financial resources. Don’t worry; the financial metrics will make it easy to justify the increased investment and effort. That means you will need to develop an ongoing process for measuring, managing and enhancing all aspects of the process.
