Building an E-commerce Business
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This document provides guidance on building an e-commerce business, including choosing a business, creating a plan, marketing online, and reviewing case studies. It discusses choosing a unique business idea, creating a business roadmap that includes channels, building a website, marketing, and analytics. It also covers online marketing challenges and opportunities, like the importance of testing and learning. Finally, it reviews a case study of an existing retail business that generated $14,000 in its first month of online sales by launching an e-commerce store and emailing current customers.
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Building an E-commerce Business
- 1. Building an E-commerce Business an approach for a Web 2.0 world 02.18.2011
- 2. Curriculum ✤ Choosing a Business ✤ Creating a Plan ✤ The E-commerce Iceberg ✤ Road Map to Launch ✤ Running it ✤ 3 quick Case Studies: Small, Medium, Big - How they were Successful at Growth
- 3. Choosing a Business ✤ Is Your Idea Unique? ✤ If Not... ✤ Online is more Crowded than Offline ✤ Competing in a Google / Affiliate / Drop ship / eBay / Amazon world (POV)
- 4. Creating A Plan e-Business Roadmap Research Channel Build Market Measure Selection Repeat e-Bay Advertising Focus Grps Design, Build Affiliate Offline Order Management Scorecard Ad hoc calls Website Online Analytics Fulfillment Regular Review Customer Interview Mobile Search Competition Accounting Kiosk PPC Ops Partner Social Mobile App CRM
- 6. The “New” E-commerce Roadmap e-Commerce WEBSITE Roadmap Fulfillment Channel Build Market Measure Selection Repeat e-Bay Advertising Design, Build Product Sourcing Affiliate Offline Order Management Scorecard Inventory vs Drop Ship Website Online Analytics Fulfillment Regular Review Storage / Warehouse Mobile Search Accounting Order Management Kiosk PPC Ops Partner Social Mobile App CRM
- 7. The “New” E-commerce Roadmap e-Commerce WEBSITE Roadmap Fulfillment Channel Build Market Measure Selection Repeat e-Bay Advertising Design, Build Product Sourcing Affiliate Offline Order Management Scorecard Inventory vs Drop Ship Website Online Analytics Fulfillment Regular Review Storage / Warehouse Mobile Search Accounting Order Management Kiosk PPC Ops Partner Social Mobile App CRM
- 8. The “New” E-commerce Roadmap e-Commerce WEBSITE Roadmap Fulfillment Channel Build Market Measure Selection Repeat e-Bay Advertising Design, Build Product Sourcing Affiliate Offline Order Management Scorecard Inventory vs Drop Ship Website Online Analytics Fulfillment Regular Review Storage / Warehouse Mobile Search Accounting Order Management Kiosk PPC Ops Partner Social Mobile App CRM
- 9. The “New” E-commerce Roadmap e-Commerce WEBSITE Roadmap Fulfillment Channel Build Market Measure Selection Repeat e-Bay Advertising Design, Build Product Sourcing Affiliate Offline Order Management Scorecard Inventory vs Drop Ship Website Online Analytics Fulfillment Regular Review Storage / Warehouse Mobile Search Accounting Order Management Kiosk PPC Ops Partner Social Mobile App CRM
- 10. Building the Business Dunkin' Donuts Projects for March 2007 Improvement Hours Project Estimate Launch Description Database Server Move Dunkin' Donuts 4 MQ Agent Research Implement Phase 1 of Business Requirements 15 ASAP Adding $100 cap on U.S. Mail Orders & Generic Site Messaging Shopping Cart Issue Detailed Hours Report for January 2007 8 ASAP Find fix for all items showing up under "Suggeted Items" Digex Maintenance 8 Ongoing Ongoing Hours Comprehensive Shipping Changes 20 TBD Completion of 2 lingering issues regarding US Mail Options/ P.O. Box Project Estimate Launch Description Free Iced Coffee Day Emails 16 27-Mar Design/Deploy two emails AS400 Migration 3 TBD Support/Testing Free Iced Coffee Day Graphics/Detail Page 12 27-Mar Main Feature Graphic, Store Locator Graphic & Detail page JetBlue Side Bar Graphic 5 7-Jan Design/Deploy side bar grahpic for JetBlue Admin Tool Performance Issues 10 Ongoing Debugging U.S. Ski Team Graphics & Detail Page 17 10-Jan 2 Large side feature graphics, store finder graphic and detail page Dashboard Report 15 Ongoing Snap shot of metrics and sales numbers: weekly and monthly Franchising Updates 4 12-Jan Updating copy, sidebar graphic on DD.com Other Fixes/Issues 5 Ongoing Customer Issues, other small issues Homepage Updates 8 18-Jan Remove Holiday graphics, update logos & background Weekly Status Calls/Communication/Planning 13 Tuesdays 5 status calls with an avg. of 2 participants from Mnet, future project lists/planning Contests & Promos Page Update 4 22-Jan New Use It Win It graphic, remove all old promos Cycle Nutrition/Small Site Updates 8 Ongoing Nutrition & other small updates Scholarship America Detail Pages 6 28-Jan Update & Deploy Scholarship America Detail page TOTAL HOURS 134 WCFY Homepage Graphic 5 Design/Deploy grahpic Update company info page 1 Copy update Spelling Errors & Shipping Confirmation Emails 4 Fixing spelling errors/updating copy on confirmation emails, remove copy re: ship date Ship Date Error - Order Fixes 3 Final Budget Order Processing 4 9-Jan Final Round of Budget orders, unsettled orders/Restart windows service Refund Process Change/Order Adjustments 12 1-Feb Assisting with the Refund Process Project, call/communication, testing DD.com Biz Requirments Audit 4 6-Feb Report detailing how DD.com handles shipping and order business rules USPS Parcel Post Recap and Report 3 31-Jan Report detailing the impact of the discontinuation of USPS Parcel Post Shipping Method Admin Tool Performance Issues 2 Ongoing Admin tool performance is slower than normal Maple Cheddar Sandwich 10 28-Jan Design/Develop Detail page and supporting graphics Dunkin' Donuts Weekly Dashboard Week of 2007 Feb 12 to Feb 18 Dashboard Reports 14 Ongoing Snap shot of metrics and sales numbers: weekly and monthly Other Fixes/Issues 15 Ongoing Customer Issues, other small issues , sever/application maintenance Weekly Status Calls/Communication/Planning Nutrition/Small Site Updates 18 8 Tuesdays Ongoing 5 status calls with an avg. of 2 participants from Mnet, future project lists/planning Nutrition & other small updates Sales DASHBOARD ANALYSIS %! 2006 Totals DD Card Non-DD Card 665 Boylston Street, Floor 4 Boston, Massachusetts 02116 TOTAL HOURS 150 Sales net of shipping $120,654.60 21% $95,299.11 $16,660.00 $103,994.60 T 617.859.7900 Analytics Review Average Order (#Dunkin’ Dounuts of Products) 4.03 0% 4.03 4.75 3.79 F 617.249.0665 May 2007 Web Performance Average Order ($ of Amount)$38.25 0% $38.32 $12.13 $34.57 dashboard@maintainnet.com maintainnet.com Customer Count 1026 KEY FIGURES Sales per Visitor Session $0.96 Regular Refills % of Total Sales 52.81% Sales 1lb ground and whole bean Top Ten 21% Lb. Coffee Sales Daily + Weekly* 6%$54,703.55 *includes $1,200K 1. 1lb Gound Original Blend (in Thousands of Dollars) Increase in IncreaseWhole Bean Original Blend 3. 5lb in Sales from Sales 2oz Ground Original Blend - 48 pack 2. from $960K 2006 YTD Apr-06Certificate, $1 - book of 5 4. Gift $989K $910K 6. 1lb Whole Bean Original Blend $720K 4. Dunkin Donuts Card, Denomination 38M 19%7. 1 lb Ground Dunkin Decaf $480K $647K $663K $602K 7. 1lb Ground French Vanilla $583K $570K Total Page Increase in $560K $540K $536K $514K $511K 9. Dunkin Donuts Card, Denomination (25 cards min.) Views in New10. 1lb Ground Hazelnut Orders $240K YTD 2007 from YTD Planning planning 2006 Card 1/29- 2/4 2/5-Jun 2/11 Jul Aug 2/12- 2/18Oct Sep Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Sales Sales from 1 Year-Ago Total $ Sales of Cards $18,760.00 $27,155.00 $16,660.00 Total # of Cards Sold 1840 2929 1373 Monthly Sales Average $ Amount of Cards Sold $10.20 $9.27 $12.13 Yearly Sales Registrations 14,766 May 2006 %! 4,852 2007 Apr %! 4,388 May 2007 2006 YTD %! 2007 YTD Sales (Net of Sales (Net of Site Performance Shipping) $552,285 9% $569,687 6% $601,819 Shipping) $2,316,115 21% $2,801,462 Page Views Regular Refills % of 1,751,626 Regular Refills % of 54% -5% 52% 0% 52% 52% 0% 52% Visits Total Sales 125,342 Total Sales Average Visit 4:58 Customer Count/ Customer Count/ 3,986 16% 3,673 26% 4,638 18,996 19% 22,613 Median Visit New Orders 2:10 New Orders Views per Session 13.97 Search Referrals Average Order $39.40 54,460 3% $42.30 -4% $40.64 Average Order $39.27 1% $39.72 Repeat Visits 6,314 Sales per Visitor Sales per Visitor $1.06 -21% $0.98 -14% $0.84 $1.00 -23% $0.77 Session Session Execution Current / Last YR MO Current / Last MO YTD / Last YR YTD Site Performance Total Visits & No Referrer Visits May 06 Apr 07 May 07 2007 YTD 1,500K Page Views 6,113,193 6,249,402 7,023,433 38,717,592 1,200K Visits 519,826 581,657 713,088 3,840,945 1,105K Average Visit 0:04:45 0:05:00 0:04:39 0:05:14 900K 859K Median Visit 0:01:58 0:02:06 0:02:01 0:02:17 785K 600K 713K MNET Page 2 of 2 582K 582K Views / Session 11.76 10.74 9.85 10 503K 480K 476K 471K 498K 495K 300K 438K 449K 385K Search Referrals 239,369 246,115 290,895 1,452,931 Analytics Review 300K 231K 221K 209K 246K 254K 190K 193K 211K Repeat Visits 10.19% 9.75% 9.65% 10.22% Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Visits No Referrer ! web analytics email Constant Improvement Cycle
- 11. Online Business Marketing ✤ Confusing number of marketing venues increases day-by-day ✤ Test and Learn - exhausting and labor intensive but use it to prove a business model that fits your budget ✤ The Facebook Effect -critical for consumer-facing companies ✤ “Long Tails” have opportunity for small and niche businesses especially B-to-B
- 12. Online Business Marketing ✤ Confusing number of marketing venues increases day-by-day ✤ Test and Learn - exhausting and labor intensive but use it to prove a business model that fits your budget ✤ The Facebook Effect -critical for consumer-facing companies ✤ “Long Tails” have opportunity for small and niche businesses especially B-to-B
- 13. Online Business Marketing ✤ Confusing number of marketing venues increases day-by-day ✤ Test and Learn - exhausting and labor intensive but use it to prove a business model that fits your budget ✤ The Facebook Effect -critical for consumer-facing companies ✤ “Long Tails” have opportunity for small and niche businesses especially B-to-B
- 14. Case Study: Barrington Outfitters ✤ 25 year old retail business with no website ✤ $0 - $14K in online sales for December, 2010 ✤ “Instant” Commerce - BigCommerce Store with pre-made template ✤ Email blasts to 750 notebook signers generated 80% customers ✤ KEY TO SUCCESS: Established retail business - email current customers. Carried “high demand” brands like Ugg.
- 15. Case Study: Barrington Outfitters ✤ 25 year old retail business with no website ✤ $0 - $14K in online sales ✤ “Instant” Commerce - BigCommerce Store with pre-made template ✤ Email blasts to 750 notebook signers generated 80% customers
- 16. Case Study: Cloudveil ✤ Owners purchased a niche brand for low cash down including customer base of 4K ✤ Reduced cost of online platform / kept branding elements / lowered cost of online biz ops ✤ Online sales increased from $0K - $1.6mm on total e-commerce investment of $100K ✤ Key to Success: Bought niche brand cheap / kept development costs and operating costs to a minimum using SaaS products
- 17. Case Study: Cloudveil ✤ Owners purchased a niche brand for low cash down including customer base of 4K ✤ Reduced cost of online platform / kept branding elements / lowered cost of online biz ops ✤ Online sales increased from $0K - $1.6mm on total e-commerce investment of $100K
- 18. Case Study: Poliquin International ✤ Small to medium business growth online in 16 months ✤ Fitness & Nutrition Supplements ✤ B-to-B and B-to-C Components ✤ Online sales increased from $68K - $650K PER MONTH in 16 months ✤ Key to Success: RELENTLESS content creation and social engagement
- 19. Case Study: Poliquin International ✤ Small to medium business growth online in 16 months ✤ Fitness & Nutrition Supplements ✤ B-to-B and B-to-C Components ✤ Online sales increased from $68K - $650K PER MONTH in 16 months
- 20. Summary: Key Success Factors ✤ Pick a business carefully, do your research, consider purchase or partnership. The online world is more crowded than the offline world ✤ Expose the “Iceberg” and develop a plan for product fulfillment, order management, customer service BEFORE you design your site ✤ building an Building the business almost always requires “ecosystem” of website, Facebook, Twitter, and blogging updates - creating and sharing content on a regular, timely basis