Have I got the right ecommerce team, management and skills?

eCommerce and Digital have emerged from the same skillset as Direct Marketing, in that all activities can be tested, measured and then rolled out appropriately provided you have the right skill set to do this. This discipline should be at the heart of your eCommerce management team. You should be able to positively answer the following questions:

  • Do you have a separate eCommerce/Digital team? Are you expecting all staff to do eCommerce as part of their day job? Is this impinging your ability to grow?
  • What eCommerce experience does your team have? Are you paying these people to learn their trade or are they bringing external career experience to bear on your business? Do you need eCommerce training?
  • Is someone with experience accountable for eCommerce sales? In reality is someone accountable for achieving revenue and profitability or is this just included with other channels? It is hard to separate sales by channel as online is said to have an influence in two-thirds of all purchases, but someone needs to take charge of a plan for growth.
  • Do you have a visible A/B testing strategy and practice? Have you got internal analytics skills? These skills can give the understanding necessary to fuel your growth.
  • Have you got a weekly dashboard that exposes performance and directs corrective action?

Too much focus is placed on the design and technology behind websites whereas it is the driver of the car that can often make all the difference.

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Have I got the right eCommerce strategy?

The first question for many is have you actually got a strategy for eCommerce? Is there some stated strategic aim or objective concerning digital or eCommerce or is it just that we have a website and we hope it grows?

How do I improve my eCommerce performance?

eCommerce is essentially a controllable discipline that requires the right mindset and skill set to optimise results.