Location • Location • Location
• What better location than your customers’ fingertips?
• What better neighborhood than the entire world?
The explosion in e-commerce is outstripping everyone’s expectations -- even the most ardent e-advocates -- and the pace is accelerating exponentially. As e-commerce expands from the web site to the palm pilot to the cell phone, electronic commerce real estate will become more and more valuable.
The first step in establishing an e-commerce site is planning.
The first step in planning is putting someone in authority in charge - someone who can ask the president for a $2 million budget and 2000 square feet of warehouse space. Decide first what you want the site to do. How do you want it to support your online customer sales and service? How are you going to use it to augment and simplify your supply chain? How will you avoid jeopardizing your current distribution infrastructure? How can you use it to support your current vendors and sales force?. Is cannibalization of traditional sales channels a problem?
If you don’t give your customers the information they want “NOW!” they can hit the back button and be at your competitor’s site in eight seconds or less. There’s no use trying to force your customer to wait for glorious graphics and whiz-bang logos. If they don’t have the bandwidth, the time or the plug in, you’re gone in a click. A home page that takes over 30 seconds to download is death. Give your customer access before everything.
There’s only one thing that everyone in the e-world can agree on, “scale is king.” Whatever works today, must be able to scale up to work ten times as well tomorrow. A system that can handle thirty orders must be able to handle thirty thousand five years from now. Wal-Mart’s first month of e commerce netted $1400, now they do more than that every hour... and that’s just the tip of their e commerce solution.
To fully implement your complete e-commerce solution from supply chain management, customer sales and service, and personalization, down to how you position yourself in the business-to-business supplier network, you need solutions that work now and will scale up to meet the future. Use and promote the advantages that you now have, and decide how you are going to beat your competition in the future. Then design your presence and only promote that when you’re ready.
There’s nothing worse that sitting around the tree explaining to the kids that their toys are in the mail. Boo.com learned from Amazon’s mistake and postponed their start-up until they had the fulfillment problem solved... but their site design was so graphic intensive and plug-in dependent that only cable and dsl (and above) could access it and then only if they downloaded plug-ins. They spent hundreds of thousands designing a narrow bandwidth site for the other 50% of their audience and went out of business trying.
E-commerce has gone from baby steps to a billion transactions a year – overnight. Within two years, Nordstroms’ e-commerce site was profitable, within three years, it accounted for 10% of total sales - over $160 million. The e-tidal wave is massive and gaining momentum and Cramer foresees “hideous losses for those who don’t see it coming.” The trick is to jump in with both feet without breaking your legs. Careful planning is the key and establishing an interim presence that people will seek out while you prepare is the trick.
Barry identified his problems areas:
- 1) “Remember scale is king.”
When you choose an e-commerce solution, make sure it will serve you in the future. Do you have the ability to fullfill double your current orders? Do you want business-to-consumer, business-to-business, mobile commerce, machine-to-machine? Will you in the future?
2) “Don’t skimp on planning.”
There’s too much at stake. You are opening a new store. Spend as much on this store as you did on your last one. Look at your infrastructure. How do your stores communicate with you, with your suppliers, with each other. Maximize this opportunity and you can streamline communications and operations throughout your organization and vastly increase your operational efficiency.
3) “Don’t fund a system that takes 9 months to implement.”
There are numerous e-commerce systems out there with incredible functionality. They are customizable, scalable, powerful and for all but an infinitely small number of situations, perfect for you. If someone tells you they have to reinvent the wheel for you, be sure they know what a wheel is.
4) “Don’t allow 1 person to know more than 50% of the project.”
Make sure your project manager isn’t hoarding project information. You want to know how your systems are working together with your existing accounting, inventory, sales, customer service and supply chain infrastructure.
5) “Create an open process and encourage input.”
People who know what they’re doing in your business, are likely to know when something’s lacking in your e-business. Always listen and be prepared to act.
6) “Educate your managers.”
Let them participate fully in the process. If they are going to have to learn new procedures in order to take full advantage of your e-commerce, they need to know the advantages that will be in store for them, and how they can contribute to the overall process. When your store operations are ready to go on line, they will be on line.
7) “Don’t sell your soul to contractors.”
No one knows your business better than you do. That’s why you’re in that business and they’re not. Don’t accept cookie cutter solutions unless you’re in the cookie cutter business.
8) “Failure to serve customers is a crime.”
Even price-based discounters must serve their customers on line. Priceline.com finds the lowest price on airline tickets. And hotel rooms, rental cars, new cars, long distance and home financing. That’s their only claim, “Name your own price.” Yet their site recognizes you once you’ve signed in or made a purchase. It even recommends the best alternatives if you don’t make a purchase with them and refers you to Travelocity.com if they can’t serve you. That’s the online standard of service. That’s why customers come back.
9) “Don’t over-market promises.”
Promise only what you can deliver today. Promise your strength. If you need to offer something you don’t have, get it first and make sure it works before you market it. The same as with a brick-and-mortar store, don’t promise what you can’t deliver or you lose customers. You know what it costs to get back a dissatisfied customer in the off-line world, it’s the same on line.
10) “Don’t superimpose e-commerce over a dysfunctional process.”
If you have a finely tuned accounting, supply and service infrastructure already in-place, most providers can plug into it. If your system is antiquated, straining at the seams and just keeping up with your current business – replace it now (see #6).
11) “Work with adults.”
There are a lot of “kids” in e-commerce. They know their programs, but they don’t know your business. They know how to get customer service done, but they don’t know your customers. They know e-stores, but they don’t know your stores. SilverHare has the knowledge and experience in environment, branding, retailing and quick-turnaound promotions that can bridge the gap between your store and your providers to get your ideal e-store up and running when you need it, and ready to grow for the future.
