Top 6 Tips For Handling Your Ecommerce Business Projects
Online selling is an enormous and profitable type of business that many hope to get their foot into. Not just offline retailers but also online retailers want to create new eCommerce business projects and earn more profit.
Without proper preparation and knowledge of management, it is easy to fail before the eCommerce store can have its first customer. And even if a store grows boomingly, if the owner can’t keep up with the growth speed, all the hard work can crumble in a blink of an eye.
The problem that I’m talking about is associated with eCommerce business project management — which I will guide you through. After reading this article, you will not only be confident to develop your new store, but also learn how to communicate effectively with your team, and get the most out of your collaborations while working on your eCommerce business project.
- What exactly is eCommerce project management?
- Why is project management crucial for eCommerce businesses?
- Popular project management methodologies
- Lean project management
- Agile project management
- 6 best tips to handle your eCommerce business projects
- Use a project planning software
- Maintain balance between time, cost and quality
- Set clear and easily-tracked goals
- Choose the right eCommerce platform
- Have flexible budget
- Know thy enemy & know yourself
- Conclusion
What exactly is eCommerce project management?
First thing first, let’s learn about eCommerce project management — which is the discipline of carefully planning, organizing, and controlling resources to achieve business objectives or meet certain success criteria.
Put it more simply, eCommerce project management is about keeping your online store running smoothly, ahead of deadlines, up to quality standards, and suitable for the budget. There are many places to start — from becoming better at project management, to improving internal processes, and getting all communication under one roof.
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Why is project management crucial for eCommerce businesses?
You may ask yourself: is it really important to learn about project management for eCommerce? Can’t I just start selling and making big money instantly? Well, you can, but you will face higher risk of failing as well.
You see, the development of an eCommerce store involves many small processes such as picking a platform, analyzing competitors, developing themes, managing inventory, and much more. Quite often, things just go out of control and burn more money than necessary.
In order to avoid budget overrun and not fall behind business schedule, a clear strategy is crucial for your eCommerce project management.
Without proper planning and correct management, an eCommerce store can run into many problems. For example, if you focus too much on the business plan and not on creating an enjoyable eCommerce experience, customers may walk out the door quickly.
Such an unprepared attitude will make you blind from the market situation, the competition, the technical environment, and further tasks you and your team can face. It is like walking into the jungle with only a flashlight, and there is not much of a future for an eCommerce store like that.
Popular project management methodologies
The right project management methodology is the first step for a successful eCommerce project. It will be your guide to implement tasks efficiently while reducing risks. The two methods below are the most popular and you can adapt one or both into your business.
Lean project management
The lean project management methodology is an iterative process that involves creating some versions of the final deliverable in a cycle. Here are the five steps of the methodology cycle:
Define -> Measure -> Analyze -> Improve -> Control
The fundamental idea of the lean project management method is to get rid of the waste in the steps and only focus on the deliverables — which can move your business project forward. The things worth doing, for example, are prototypes of a new product or an improved buying experience.
Agile project management
Agile methodology started around 2001 and gained popularity fast. It is another iterative process that aims to create a version of the final product in each cycle. Through each cycle, small portions of the project are completed and the project gets modified based on feedback of each piece.
Here are the five steps of the agile method cycle:
Design -> Build -> Configure -> Test -> Release
Depending on your eCommerce, Agile can be more useful than Lean, and vice versa. So it’s good to have both of the methods in your toolbox. This way, you can create a more successful product launch and improve your eCommerce project in the long run.
6 best tips to handle your eCommerce business projects
There is more to eCommerce project management than implementing a methodology. Without tools and ground rules, you will soon find your project out of scope and running behind schedule.
Especially during current times, your team members may have to work remotely across different time zones, which means they can’t just walk up to you and ask a few questions. It is easy to lose time in long-distance communication like this, throwing your eCommerce project off track.
These next 6 tips will help you handle your eCommerce business projects more efficiently, even with a bigger team and more tasks to handle:
1. Use a project planning software
To keep yourself motivated or your team members on the same page, a project planning software is necessary. Here are four recommended softwares that you should use for your eCommerce project:
ProofHub
ProofHub is a management software that lets your team be on the same page and commit to deadlines using only one work management system. The whole team can see a clear agenda with quick communication while streamlining the feedback process and help members stay connected.
The app is the ultimate eCommerce project control system for managers, teams, and clients. You can start using ProofHub at only $45/month (billed annually) or update to an $89/month plan and have access to all the advanced tools this software has to offer. Many big companies use ProofHub, such as Nasa, Disney, Netflix, Nike, Pinterest, and more.
Trello
If your team is a little more tech savvy and wants a highly visual option, Trello is a good software to use. Trello bases all tasks in a column fashion with individual cards that users can move from column to column to change category.
The look and feel of a Trello dashboard is very customizable, so each team member can have a place to handle their own tasks or collaborate with others. The free plan is already robust to use, but you can upgrade to a plan of $8.33/user/month for extra features like larger attachment sizes or app integrations.
Asana
Asana is a famous option for many eCommerce projects, mostly thanks to the software’s simplicity. Users can add tasks, assign to other members, offer comments, attach files, and color coding for an efficient visual presentation. Asana is free for a team with up to 15 members, and the premium plan is $10.99/user/month.
Also Read: Asana Alternatives
Basecamp
Basecamp is one of the first online project management softwares to have existed in the market, and many big companies use it for the ease of use. You can add tasks, comment on them, create projects, upload files and attachments, tag team members, make text documents, and color code tasks. At any plan, Basecamp is $29/month for a team.
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2. Maintain balance between time, cost, and quality
The art of eCommerce business project management is to maintain balance between time, cost, and quality. These three components can’t be simultaneously optimized because of their importance.
For Time, any extra time you take to enter the market can mean disaster. If your competitors launch a similar product at a better price before you, your online store will find it hard to gain customers.
For Cost, an eCommerce project needs to maximize the value delivered at the end of the project. Which means all costs need to be evaluated and minimized. For a well-planned eCommerce project, you will see cost steadily decrease even with more fixes going on.
For Quality, I’m not only talking about products, but also the performance of the eCommerce business. All performance criteria should be met, such as load time, store’s design, usability, check out process, etc.
3. Set clear and easily-tracked goals
Though an eCommerce project usually has the ultimate goal of online selling more products, a business still needs specific goals to have real progress. These goals need to be clear and easily tracked.
For example: an influencer marketing campaign can have goals like 200% ROI through custom URLS and 150% increase in website traffic.
Your eCommerce project’s goals should have metrics that you can measure, whether by tools or self-count. Also, make sure that every data is logged as a conversion goal with real value.
4. Choose the right eCommerce platform
Whether you have had a webfront set up or not, you still should look at the option of an eCommerce platform. Since all of your business’s activities take place through a digital system, the right foundation will help you scale smoothly, cut down waste through automation, and keep your team efficient.
The first option is a prebuilt eCommerce site — which can help you set up an online store, add your products and start selling immediately. The plans are often affordable, with popular names like Shopify or BigCommerce. If you want a more customizable option, Magento is another choice. You can hire certified Magento programmers to create your custom online shop.
The second option is to build a custom eCommerce site from scratch. With custom eCommerce development, You will have complete control over the design, layout, and functionality. However, it requires more knowledge in house to take on this kind of project.
5. Have a flexible budget
There is no need to stress the importance of this part of your eCommerce project. When you don’t budget properly, you end up with way too much cost to make and maintain an online store. The budget that seemed right can suddenly become too little or even too much very quickly.
Two things to keep in mind when planning your eCommerce project budget are: method updates and sales fluctuations. If you happen to have a hit product, it is a good opportunity to make a lot of money but only when you can budget for it.
So, you should have a flexible budget to some extent and can scale with your revenue. Decide which areas that have the most impact for your customers and allocate the budget accordingly.
6. Know thy enemy & know yourself
Your competitors are a great source of information to learn about price range, business methods, advertising campaigns, and much more. When you know about the competition on the market, you can choose your own approach to positioning your eCommerce business ahead of other companies.
You can compete on prices or other special features like detailed package tracking, free shipping, extended warranty, gift card, membership, etc. Building a presence on social media that is better than your competitors is also highly beneficial for your reach and conversion.
Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter all provide tools for you to compare your company with competitors. Doing this will give you plenty of information to adjust your eCommerce project’s strategy.
Conclusion
Creating a successful eCommerce business project requires a lot, but with a great focus and strategy, you should be on the right track. By applying what you have learned in this article, your project will stay on schedule, will have an improved efficiency, and gain a competitive advantage, no matter what type of project you have in mind.
About the Author:
Chance is a content executive at Avada Commerce, whose goal is to never write a boring article. His enthusiast for eCommerce has spanned over two years of writing — making him an expert in the field. He also enjoys drinking tea and playing Exploding Kittens”
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