With the incredible eCommerce success stories of 2020 everyone is looking for expansion however an eCommerce business is built on people, not on the products.
Dropshipping products from China, doing Amazon FBA, these are still on the table but unless you know EXACTLY what you’re doing, the profitability of such ventures will be negative.
Many more however start their online business by transitioning from their brick-n-mortar locations. They have the inventory, they have the retail experience, how hard can it be?
It can be close to impossible without specialized help because it’s the little things that will break any such venture.
Common critical errors we found on new clients’ websites in the last months alone:
- not accepting crawlers so the websites were missing out on all organic traffic
- not logging traffic data to any Analytics platform (i.e. Google Analytics) so the clients did not know what pages to optimize, what areas of the website were hemorrhaging traffic
- one client had chosen to do paid ads on their own – they had spent $25K for $4K in sales – they were bidding for general keywords and attracting a lot of traffic that wasn’t looking to shop
- no or poor email marketing automation set up – losing revenue, losing subscribers
- a lot of sites had no policy pages leaving themselves open to legal attacks by shady law firms
- a lot of sites had poor layered navigation structure, poor main navigation, and poor product data
How can you start or expand your online business in 2021 and avoid making these small but very, very costly mistakes?
Only through the use of specialized help – experienced staff that has been through it all.
A proper eCommerce team should have at least 5 people:
1. Director of eCommerce
- overlooks all eCommerce activity
- coordinates communication between traditional retail and eCommerce
- experienced in all the eCommerce tools being used
- good understanding of both B2B and B2C models
- Recruiting skills in the absence of a HR manager
2. eCommerce Project Manager
- crucial for keeping track and seeing all projects through
- coordinates communication within the eCommerce team
- experienced in eCommerce, Analytics, and tools
- experienced in Project Management
3. Digital Marketing Manager (graphic designer, copywriter)
- experienced with eCommerce graphic design best practices
- experienced with Social Media best standards
- experience with copywriting
- good communication skills to be able to speak both technically with the team and to create engaging content for a plethora of mediums including web, print, social media, email, and more.
4. eCommerce Analyst
- responsible to continuously analyze data: website activity, sales, channels
- communicates sales problems and opportunities to the entire team
- responsible for finding conversion optimization problems and opportunities
- needs eCommerce experience and a very good understanding of best practices
5. Developer
- responsible for implementing fixes and improvements
- keeping the website updated and secured
- a good understanding of eCommerce will help your developer to better react to requests from the eCommerce team.
A properly set up, in-house eCommerce team, is going to be expensive and people come and go.
You can always leverage using outside help, with Digital Marketing Agencies and Staff Support Agencies, even external Consultants that overlook your business and give you the direction but doesn’t this mean losing control with too many parties involved?
The trick is in the mix and the growth. As your ecommerce business is growing your staff requirements will continue to grow and to evolve.
Keep your in-house team busy with what cannot be done remotely and remove all mundane, repetitive tasks from their work day.
Make sure they are focusing their time and energy doing high level, engaging and professionally rewarding tasks.
Give them the responsability to coordinate external help.
Your in-house staff will be happier with their jobs, you will have external professionals do theirs and the Human Resources worries and hurdles will diminish.
2021 is still uncertain and it’s during periods such as this when businesses can reinvent themselves.
- A restaurant moving into take-away and home delivery
- A hardware store moving into consulting, repairs, handyman marketplace, and eCommerce
- A fashion boutique store moving into personalized virtual styling and an improved eCommerce experience
- A pet shop changing into an online subscription and local delivery model
- A soccer gear site focusing on home training, backyard gear, and fitness accessories
These are just a few examples of businesses that reinvented themselves with us during the COVID Pandemic and not only survived but thrived!
Be a success story!
Reach out to specialized help and start off on the right foot.