Planning for e-commerce

Identify e-commerce opportunities

Guide

There are several different ways you might use e-commerce in your business.

Direct sales

Many businesses use e-commerce for the direct selling of goods or services online. For some businesses such as those selling software or music, the sale and delivery of goods can be made online. For most the supply of goods will continue to require a physical delivery.

If you plan to sell online, you may need to rethink many of your business activities. You will fundamentally change the way in which you interact with your customers - for example, if customers place orders online instead of talking to a salesperson. You will also need to work out how every aspect of a transaction is handled - including order confirmation, invoicing and payment, and deliveries and returns. See fulfilling online orders

Pre-sales

You can use your website for pre-sales activities and generate sales leads. At its most basic this can mean having an online version of your promotional materials on your site. Other options include email campaigns, search marketing or online advertising to attract visitors to your website.

Post-sales support

You can also use the internet to automate aspects of your customer support to reduce the number of routine customer service calls. This can be achieved by using your site to answer the most frequently asked questions, or by putting technical information online. Follow-up emails can be automated to encourage further sales. 

Ensuring success

However you decide to use e-commerce, it is important to define your objectives from the outset. What level of sales are you hoping to make? How many sales leads are you looking to generate? What percentage reduction in customer telephone calls are you expecting to achieve? Ensure that targets are put in place so that you can measure the success, or otherwise, of your e-commerce activities. See your marketing objectives.