We all think e-commerce is just building a website forgetting the most important aspect which is building a business. Ecommerce should often be thought has a business foremost then the website has a delivery channel for the commerce.
For a successful ecommerce website to be achieved it all begins by understanding and defining the business strategy, goals and metrics for the site, and then crafting a website that is tailored to meet those site objectives.
You wouldn’t build a house without a plan or a blueprint to follow, same as you shouldn’t build a website without having a proper plan. Using a Holistic Ecommerce Website Deployment approach to ecommerce will ensure you come in prepared and do it once, right; avoiding common mistakes.
To ensure that failure online and wasted untold time and money is eliminated you need a Holistic Ecommerce Website Deployment. It is as simple as the 5Ps of online success: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.
The Holistic Ecommerce Website Deployment involves:
The Research and Strategy: This is the foundation of a successful ecommerce site that clearly states the articulated strategy.
Knowing what you want your site to accomplish for both your business and users using informed data to make informed decisions about every aspect of your business.
This phase involves customer interview, understanding target audience, competitive analysis, SEO keyword and research, managing objectives and client expectations.
The outcome of this phase ensures you understanding what the users want and you are providing what they really want or need. Nothing is as bad as providing what nobody wants.
The Planning Phase: After we know what the users are looking for and they want, you need to translate the needs and wants of your user into specific requirements for the content and functionality of the site. Here you have to think about prioritizing the target audience, functional requirement, search content requirement, user experience and creative brief.
This phase gives you a clear define scope and requirement of the final ecommerce.
The Information Architecture: It is now time to fit together the requirements and develop a functional design for the ecommerce site.
The functional design gives you a defined scope and requirement identifying specific aspect of interface, navigation and information design. This makes it easy for a clear prototype visualization.
Measure your Success: How will you know if your ecommerce site is successful at meeting your business needs? The key success metrics for ecommerce sites include:
1. Traffic: The number of visitors that are coming to your site
2. Stickiness: The amount of time users spend on the site and the number of pages they view
3. Conversion: The percent of visitors who become customers and the size of the average sales ticket
4. Customer Retention: The number of customers who return to your site and the frequency of their purchases
Holistic Ecommerce Website Deployment achieve real Economic Benefits for Your Business, what will you gain from a successful Holistic Ecommerce Website Deployment? A successful ecommerce business that delivers real economic value, including:
Attracting New Customers: By planning and implementing a search-engine friendly architecture from the start, your ecommerce site gains relevant and targeted traffic.
Increasing Sales: By streamlining the sales process and improving the shopping experience we increase the conversion rate and the average ticket price.
Increasing Customer Loyalty and Retention: An enhanced, usable, and pleasing ecommerce experience generates greater user satisfaction and trust which translates into returning customers.
Providing Superior Customer Service and Communications: Helps your customers to communicate, engage and ultimately identify themselves with your business through ecommerce tools, user communities, online support, and by providing them with comprehensive and timely product information.
Reducing Operating Costs and Increasing Efficiency: Reduces your customer acquisition, customer service and fulfillment costs by leveraging the website for client communications and process automation.
Promoting Your Brand and Enhancing Your Brand Image: We ensure you display a consistent corporate identity online with a professional style guide.
Moreover, our ecommerce Marketing solutions promote your products to the right audience, resulting in enhanced Brand Recognition and demand.
Preparing for Future Needs: With a proper plan and scalable architecture, your ecommerce site can accommodate additional requirements, features and functionality in the future.
tobi asehinde is the founder and chief executive officer of Vibe Web Solutions Limited, a company poised to providing web solutions to meet web related needs of businesses and helping businesses grow using ground-breaking web and marketing technologies.
They help to setup ecommerce store from planning stage to implementation stage. Vibe Web Solutions Limited has clients based within and outside Nigeria servicing both business and governmental organisations. He can be contacted via: tobi.asehinde@vibewebsolutions.com