In this post we explore the third and final phase of services in our recommended process for strategy and execution across ecommerce marketplaces and webstores. You can carry out these services yourself, or you can entrust them to a specialist provider who can bring a fresh perspective on what has also worked in other businesses and categories.
In total we identify a handy dozen stages that make up this proven process for sustained success. After we introduced the series, our second post explored the 6 stages that make up the initial ‘plan’ phase: consumer demand analysis, product fit analysis, projections, and 3 stages of pre-execution recommendations covering your business, from marketplace and listings through to post-sale customer service.
Then we covered the ‘launch’ phase, where the rubber meets the road in terms of execution. There were 3 stages to this: getting your data right, configuring your systems, creating your accounts, branded stores and listing templates.
The final 3 stages of the 12 make up the final phase, which we call ‘accelerate’, and which we could just as easily call ‘expand’, or even ‘review, research, adjust, go again’. At a very high level, you’re doubling down on the things that are working well, eliminating or revising the things that aren’t, and scanning the landscape for new opportunities, all the while increasing your sales speed as you go.
Here are the final 3 stages.
How do these final stages boil down to activities during the life of a project? The first point to make is that while we’ve referred to the word ‘project’, the final phase is really a continual process. With each successive plan and launch, you’re adding to the universe of listings your business manages, watching performance closely to see the results of your initial push and your subsequent adjustments. New channels or new regions come on stream after the rigour of your plans and launches, become part of your overall offering and help your business expand and accelerate. The ongoing management aspect becomes progressively larger.
For this process to work, you need accurate and powerful business intelligence. With ecommerce you can quickly see the sales results of any work you do, or any changes you make, as long as you can actually see the results. Make sure you have, or your services partner has, access to good reporting and analytics, or your going to struggle to make good, quick decisions. Here are the main inputs for your accelerate phase.
Daily marketplace SEO:
Reporting:
Strategy and Growth:
You can find much of the content from this series of posts included in the guides on the Volo resources page, which are free for you to download and refer back to at your leisure.
To discuss your plans for ecommerce growth in 2022, please get in touch.
