Forum Moderators: buckworks
People want to hear people talk to them, not corporate speak. EC adaptive initiative made my eyes glaze over. What does that really mean? Will people respond to it? Will they know what it means? Or will the "EC Adaptive Initiative" become a memo that is read and tossed into the circular file?
First, there is no "toe-dipping" in the ecomm world. Ever seen that commercial for IBM where a bunch of business types are gathered around a computer as they launch thier first Ecom venture? And the # sales indicator starts off slow then quickly accelerates to 6 and 7 digit numbers?
That's an extreme example of what it could be like but the lesson in it is that your plan needs to be prepared to handle the unexpected. You can't ease into ecomm - you're either in or you're out.
The only 'easing' you can do is to not implement full cc transactions and do them manually in batches at the end of the day. Shipping is another issue - do you handle shipping yourself or do you rely on shippers?
Now about "comformt" - did you mean conform or comfort?
how would you go about implementing the changes without upsetting staff and management. How would you "organize" the implementation?
What measures will you use to quantify thecosts and benefits, of ecom apps.
Questions about fulfillment (order processing and shipping) are quite relevant here when considering costs.
I agree no toe-dipping. Get your credit card processing in place and plan on good customer service...somebody to reply to e-mail questions and follow-up with customers and leads.
Christi
Second. You need traffic in order to sell so you have to have a plan for generating traffic. That means you need to develop a multi-layer plan for advertisements (Adwords at Google for example), buying links/ad space on other pages at other websites that are on-topic and see a reasonable volume of traffic to make it worth it. Think about Pay Per Click models here (PPC). There are many ways to generate traffic - spend a few weeks (seriously) searching for and reading the posts here and you'll get what you need and then some. And don't forget traditional advertising mediums. Build up relationships a little at a time. There're plenty of posts here for you to learn from.
You need a way to evaluate the costs for implementation of the Ecomm model. Initial build, hosting, shipping arrangements, CC Transaction processing, various fees that go along with reporting (if applicable). The ongoing upkeep and tracking of stock, prices, taxes, shipping costs, etc...
You need a way to evaluate ROI. What you spend on advertising, upkeep, etc versus what you're getting out of it. Most businesses fail because they simply ignore the expenses of running a business. Don't make this mistake. Be realistic. Getting into ecomm is simple in theory but in reality it takes some getting used to in order to figure out how to change the business model to best suit your business. Again, read and educate yourself.
As for the human factor - get the number of people involved in decision making reduced to as few as possible and make sure you're the last one - but no further than next to the last. Any more and the project will become a management disaster waiting to happen and you'll get stuck in the middle of it. Don't go there - it ain't fun.
Hopefully this will get you started.
G.
