Analysis,Budget,Inventory in E-commerce

SWOT Analysis

Your next step will involve taking a high-level, objective look at your business and its internal and external processes. By doing this, you will be able to discover the feasibility of e-commerce for your business. Just because you can create an online store does not always mean that it is in your best interest to do so. An excellent tool to help determine this is a SWOT Analysis. A SWOT Analysis is a study undertaken by an organization to identify its internal strengths and weaknesses as well as its external opportunities and threats. For instance, if you are a brick and mortar or click and mortar store, e-commerce will more than likely be an additional sales channel for your business, which can represent an opportunity. On the other hand, if you will be conducting all your e-commerce online, you will be considered a pure-play organization that can represent many strengths such as low overhead costs. Regardless of your business’s type, it is crucial that you learn about your business through your SWOT Analysis so that you can plan your strategy around it . If you search for SWOT Analysis in Microsoft Word, you will find a free PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel template. You can also Google to find many free step-by-step articles and tutorials.

Goal Setting

How will you know if your online store is a success or not? If you are like most people, you will probably say, “by looking at the volume of sales.” Although this is important, it is not the only measure of success. In addition to having an end goal, you will want to create some other goals to help evaluate your progress and success. We’ve all heard the saying, “A goal without a plan is just a dream,” and to have a positive return on investment (ROI), you need to establish some goals. As with any goals, they need to be

SMART:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timely

These criteria will help you evaluate whether your goals are realistic or whether they need to be revised. Once you have created your goals, you must review them periodically to make sure that you are still on track.

Budget

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to worry about money? Absolutely! Unfortunately, being an entrepreneur or small business owners means that you must watch every dollar and use it wisely. One way to do this is by creating a budget. Establishing a budget is another critical component of your online store. We’ve all heard that it takes money to make money, but until you can get it flowing into your business on a consistent basis, you will want to create and stick to a budget. Although we will be using WordPress as our e-commerce solution, which is open source software and free, there are still other expenses that you might not be aware of that you will need to budget for such as:

• Web Hosting
• Domain Name
• SSL Certificate
• E-commerce Theme
• E-commerce Plugins
• Marketing tools and materials
• Search engine optimization
• Merchant account and fees
• Credit card fees
• Employee costs
• Warehouse space (if applicable)
• Analytics software to track visitors and their movements on your store

Of course, there will be more, but these are just a few to get you started. By being aware of them ahead of time, they won’t come as such a surprise when they occur. You will already be mentally and financially prepared. Throughout the book, we will discuss many of these budget items in detail.

Inventory

An online store is only as good as the items that it sells and who knows your catalog better than you. You probably already have a pretty good idea of the things that you want to sell. Typically, they will fall into one or all of these categories:

• Physical products
• Services
• Digital media

Offering physical products allow consumers to see images of the item before making a purchase. They also require shipping. From a business standpoint, you must determine which shipping methods will be used, along with the cost. You also must decide where you will store the products until they are purchased. If you operate a brick and mortar or click and mortar store, you already have inventory storage available. However, if you are a pure-play retailer, you will have to find a room, which could involve additional costs. With services, you don’t have to worry about storing or shipping anything. Services are intangible, so the only thing that needs to be provided is the service. Since mobile technology has made the shift to digital media products and services more accessible to retrieve and receive, you should determine whether your product offerings will consist of digital products, physical products, or a combination of the two. Based on your knowledge of your customer base, you should be able to decide.

Timeline/Project Schedule

In the IT field, whenever you ask someone, “What’s the deadline for this project?,” the answer was always “yesterday.” When it comes to launching your online store, you might feel the same way. However, if you want to make sure it is done the first time correctly, you will need a project plan or schedule. Otherwise, you can end up spending more time and money than you originally anticipated.

Most people think of Microsoft Project when they hear the words “project plan.” Although it is a useful project management tool with many advanced features and capabilities to use to plan your project, it is typically used in larger companies for larger projects. Occasionally, it can be overkill for smaller projects, especially if you don’t know how to use it correctly. Not to mention that there is also a learning curve that goes along with it that you don’t need while creating your online store. You need a simple way to record all the necessary tasks, their estimated duration and along with their start and end dates, and the person assigned to them. Depending on the size of your business, the person designated could be solely you or other people, but at least you will know. Some free and low-cost tools for creating your project schedule include:

• Microsoft Excel
• Libre Office Calc
• Google Sheets of GSuite
• Zoho.com
• Trello
• Basecamp
• Asana

Other online project management software can be found by Googling. Likewise, mobile apps can be found in Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store. It doesn’t matter what application you use if you are comfortable with using it. Once you have all your project tasks recorded, you will be able to determine a projected completion date for your online store. This date is not set in stone but gives you an idea of your potential time frame. Your project plan now becomes your road map and will guide you to the finish line. This plan must be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect your project’s progress accurately. Otherwise, it is an ineffective tool.

Planning is the cornerstone for any effective and successful e-commerce strategy. No one builds a house without a blueprint, and no one should build an online store without a plan. Nothing good ever comes from haphazardly creating an e-commerce strategy. Short-term results might be achieved, but for long-term results, a solid plan is a must. Other planning components that should be considered include:

• SWOT Analysis
• Goal Setting
• Inventory Selection
• Timeline/Project Schedule

By considering these components before launching an online store, you minimize the chances of wasting time and money.