COVID-19 Retail Innovation Series
Product Selection
To begin your eCommerce journey one of the most fundamental and often ignored tasks is to define yours and your customer needs and accordingly look for a suitable IT solution. Also, it is very important to revisit your current processes and operating procedures to know the Gaps or Innovations that can be brought about.
Don’t be compelled or inclined towards a particular vendor or solution based on their glossy and attractive commercials or presentations. These vendors may have a good solution but the question is about suitability to your requirements. Have a detailed objective look at the various products that you come across. There can be demos and discussions held to better understand the maturity of the product.
The following selection criteria checklist can help you in arriving at the right solution
- Product maturity in terms of the Functions and Features provided
- Look for FURPS
- Functionality, Usability, Reliability, Performance, Supportability
- Product Owner Company Strengths and Capabilities. This includes implementation capabilities.
- Integration Capabilities including inventory sync up
- Client Base and Testimonials
- Total Cost of Ownership that includes license, implantation charge, infrastructure cost and AMC
Implementation
After the vendor and product are selected as described in the previous step, the next task is to get into the solution implementation. The implementation needs to be meticulously planned and diligently executed to get optimum results. You and your senior team members need to take adequate time out for implementation and not leave it at the behest of the junior members or only to the operational teams.
The following are the tasks carried out for an eCommerce implementation
- Define implementation Plan
- Prepare Catalog Item and Rate Masters
- Setting up the System Environment
- User Training
- Customizations
- Integration Testing
- Stock Data Migration
- User Acceptance Testing(UAT)
- Go Live
The Implementation Plan needs to include and mention all tasks that the vendor and client carry out in a collaborative manner.
The online catalogue that would be available with the new eCommerce system needs to have multiple good high-resolution pictures taken at various angles and sizes of the product. This helps in giving a virtual experience of product discovery to the end-user. The details of rate master and online inventory allocation are also to be done.
The Customizations referred to above are the enhancements and changes to be carried out to the software to adapt to the client needs
Integrations mentioned above could include payment gateway, delivery aggregators, inventory and accounts syncing with any external retail ERP, Financials or Inventory Management software.
During user acceptance testing have a special focus on system security, performance and integrated flows.
The milestone of system Go-Live needs to happen on the successful completion of scenario-based user acceptance testing.
The post Go Live Activities
Once the new eCommerce system is released and goes Live the customer base needs to be informed of the new facility. An online email, print, social media and digital promotional campaign can be carried out to attract customers. Also, system performance and search engine optimization (SEO) are also an important aspect of attracting and improving visitor traffic.