eCommerce How to

eCommerce – How to How to open and run own online business: - Planning - Development - Financing - Operating eCommerce – planning Plan your business - business plan – solid and powerful tool for running your business. - business model – understanding how the business works and understanding it’s processes - partnerships – suppliers, corporate customers, etc. Plan your website - design - what will if offer - what platform (Linux, MS, etc…) Plan your sales - set up a sales channels - find partners that would help you sale - do the market research (customers, suppliers, competition) Plan your staff - don’t expand too fast - employ according to your needs, avoid overloading eCommerce – planning Plan your marketing - with limited resources – hit target groups only. Don’t build your brand. - do activities that are cheap or cost no money (SEO, SEM) - believe in word-to-mouth campaigns on the internet - methods of tracking your campaigns Plan your finances - see how much you can spend on development, on marketing, on office supplies, on technology, etc. and how long will it last - be rather pessimistic when planning sales and turnover - sources of financing (operational financing – leasing, cash – friends/family/own resources, bank loans, etc.) - pricing strategy – margin, break-even point, VAT issue - cash flow – customer pays on the spot, suppliers get paid by invoices eCommerce – business plan 1. Business description 1. 2. 3. What is the business about Market needs Plan of further development Target groups Competition Environment Ownership Intellectual property Vision and ethics Business model Daily operations 2. Market description 1. 2. 3. 3. Company structure 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. eCommerce – business plan 4. Development and strategy What needs to be developed and how to achieve that Implementation 5. Legal issues and regulations legal status and incorporation 6. Finances Financial predictions (revenues, expenses, initial markup, etc) Financial strategy, pricing structure SWOT analysis eCommerce - development Web site development – first crucial issue - How would the customer search through the web site - Which product would he/she buy - How to add product to the basket - How to remove product from the basket - Force the customer to register? - How to process the order (what information is required) - How to check-out (payment, is it secured?) - Does the customer see thank you page? What information is given to the customer at the end of ordering process? MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE! eCommerce – development Daily operations – something you will use on a daily basis to run your business. - Receiving an order (web site, email, fax, walkby,…) - Payments, invoices (in and out) - Processing - Confirmation - Customer care - Office supplies eCommerce – financing - Business plan - Adjust it every 6 months, check what you’ve learned - Sales plan - Adjust it every month, be realistic - Target group plan - Customers “grow up” slowly. Give them time. eCommerce – financing Financing out of external source (bank loan, family, friends) Financing out of revenues Banks usually do not provide financing to the start-ups (collaterals, co-sign, credit history) Get prepared for cash flow problems at the beginning eCommerce - operations Daily workflow Monthly workflow – payments, invoicing, supplies Quarterly workflow – VAT Annual workflow – financial office, social and health insurance, etc. Peak and off-peak periods – special marketing activities, mailer, e-mailer, market research eCommerce - marketing Search Engine Optimization - is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via organic search results. Search engines: google, fastbot, ask.com, MSN search (currently live search), yahoo search Directories: dmoz.org, yahoo, seznam, etc. eCommerce - marketing - Quality, relevant inbound links Clean and well prepared html code (validation) Meta tags and website content (less important now) Spider – crawler that would read the web page coding eCommerce – marketing Search Engine Marketing - or SEM, is a form of Internet Marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the Search Engine result pages. Examples: Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter Interesting facts: In 2006, North American advertisers spent US$9.4 billion on search engine marketing, a 62% increase over the prior year and a 750% increase over the 2002 year. eCommerce – discussion Case study: Local bakery, wide range of customers, tycoon of the market, wide range of products. Question to be discussed: - Should the owner set up a web site (to sell products) or not. Divide into three groups: Group A – bakery SHOULD set up a website Group B – bakery SHOULD NOT set up a website Group C – what the customers would think – try to find all possible glitches