Have you found your ecommerce business stalling?
Maybe it’s time to look at all
aspects of your business with new eyes. Seek improvement across the board.
Perhaps you'll find the skill sets and
competitive advantages that got you to this point need to evolve. It’s no longer enough to be really good a just
a few things.
Evaluate your business in
these four areas:
1)
How well are you dealing with the
technical side of your business?
a.
As you grow, are
you using technology to improve
the efficiency of your processes (shipping, inventory, CRM, warehouse
management etc.) or are you throwing more bodies at the problem?
b.
Are you using
custom tools to make your site more valuable to customers, improve search
results and create competitive barriers to entry?
c.
Are you doing big-boy
hosting or are you still trying to do it on the cheap?
2)
Are you making yourself visible
to all potential customers?
a.
How good is
your SEO?
i.
Are you doing
the basics for In-site SEO? How about beyond the basics?
ii.
Off site - are
you getting quality links? Do you have a strategy?
b.
Are you using
the shopping engines and are you optimized for them?
c.
Are you
optimizing your Google Product Feeds?
d.
How well is
your PPC performing? Did you try it and give up on it?
e.
Are you in
marketplaces like eBay or Amazon?
i.
Should you be
on them? (it’s not as simple as you might think)
ii.
How much can
you really sell there? (a ton)
f.
Are you using
RSS product feeds?
g.
Are you using trigger-based
emails?
h.
Are you doing
things like “deal-a-day” promotions?
i.
Are you
blogging?
j.
What’s the
health of your affiliate programs?
k.
Have you
looked into creating micro sites that appeal to different segments of you
marketplace? Would you like to become you own competition?
l.
Are you
working at increasing international business?
3)
How well are you converting traffic
and maximizing your profit?
a.
How can you
increase your Conversions?
i.
Trust – Are
you doing all the basics to show you are trustworthy?
ii.
Is the
checkout process easy and re-assuring? Do you have a way to re-engage abandoned
carts?
b.
Analytics - What's the score?
i.
What are you
tracking?
ii.
How are you
making it actionable?
c.
Optimization –
Are you doing multivariate testing for your important/profitable pages (i.e.
home, product & checkout)
d.
How can you
improve the User Experience?
i.
Information
Architecture
1.
Is your
navigation simple and clear? Where are people getting confused?
2.
Do you offer
multiple filtering capabilities?
ii.
Does on site
search work really well?
iii.
Are you merchandizing
your products in an appealing way?
iv.
Are you using
ratings & reviews?
v.
Are you
providing educational guides, product recommendations and customization tools?
vi.
Do you have
multi-media? How-To Video’s?
vii.
What are you
doing to increase your average order size
1.
Up Selling
2.
Cross Selling
3.
Promotions
a.
Are you
testing which are most profitable?
b.
Are you
getting your vendors to support you?
4)
Repeat Customers are the cornerstone
of a successful ecommerce business.
a.
Are you
finding ways other than price to compete?
i.
Can you customize
products?
ii.
How can you
improve customer service and self-service?
iii.
What can you
do to be seen more as a trusted resource than just a store?
iv.
Have you
created custom tools?
b.
Word of Mouth
works for you or against you. Are you doing reputation management?
c.
Are you using
sophisticated email methods or just a “mailing list”?
d.
Are you
finding creative ways to build
community?
Can you do better in these areas?