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CEO Best Practice: E-Commerce

Executive Tools

  • Executive Summary
  • Self Assessment Checklist

Expert Practices Articles

  • E-Commerce Overview
  • Creating a Successful Web Presence
  • Creating an Internet Action Plan
  • Designing an Effective Web Site
  • Marketing Your Web Site
  • Implementation Tips
  • Working with Outside Vendors
  • Security Issues: Building a Safe Web Site
  • Measuring Results
  • The Top 10 E-Commerce Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Request the Entire Best Practice Module: E-Commerce

CEO Best Practice: E-Commerce

Executive Summary

  • E-Commerce Overview
  • Creating a Successful Web Presence
  • Creating an Internet Action Plan
  • Designing an Effective Web Site
  • Marketing Your Web Site
  • Implementation Tips
  • Working with Outside Vendors
  • Security Issues: Building a Safe Web Site
  • Measuring Results
  • The Top 10 E-Commerce Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

E-Commerce Overview

Experts predict that by 2003, 500 million people will use the Internet on a regular basis. By 2004, Internet sales will reach 1.5 trillion dollars. According to TEC speakers Terry Schulenburg, Ken Sethney and Ed Taylor, riding this economic wave requires a keen understanding of how the World Wide Web is reshaping the way we do business.

What's driving the Internet's explosive growth? A remarkable ability to increase sales and reduce costs while simultaneously enabling businesses to deliver their products and services in ever-expanding ways. Even more remarkable is the Internet's ability to change the face of entire industries.

The Internet has already changed the way many people buy cars, shop for mortgages, interact with their banks, book travel arrangements and more. On the business-to-business side, the revolution has just begun. Industry giants like Wal-Mart and Home Depot are spearheading an online onslaught that will permanently alter the way companies and their vendors do business together.

In the future, companies will succeed according to their ability to use digital technology to streamline business processes and add value to their customers in ways never imagined before the arrival of the Internet.

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Creating a Successful Web Presence

The Internet is not about technology. It's about using technology to solve problems that people can't solve for themselves. Companies that succeed in establishing a dominant online presence:

  • Create a focused Internet plan with very clear timetables, roles and responsibilities, and expected outcomes.
  • Clearly define the expectations for their Web sites.
  • Clearly define their target markets.
  • Have a strong "pull component," the compelling benefit that brings people to their Web sites.
  • Understand how the Internet differs from every other communication medium.
  • Outsource as much of the technology as possible.
  • Measure results.

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Creating an Internet Action Plan

Companies that succeed on the Internet use two types of plans to accomplish their e-commerce goals: a one-page business plan for the CEO and a more detailed implementation plan for the project manager. The business plan should cover five key areas:

  1. The business problem(s) you intend to solve for your target market
  2. Specific goals and objectives for the Web site
  3. Time frames
  4. Budget
  5. Measurement criteria

The implementation plan includes seven essential steps:

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Designing an Effective Web Site

According to our TEC speakers, all great Web sites incorporate 10 fundamental design principles:

  1. Convenience
  2. Transparency
  3. Fulfillment
  4. Security
  5. Personalization
  6. Proactivity
  7. Timeliness
  8. Choice
  9. Interaction
  10. Focus on content

To provide meaningful content to your Web site audience:

  • Establish your corporate power point, the compelling value you offer that sets you apart from the competition.
  • Use the three "Cs" of online copywriting. Create Clear, Concise and Compelling copy that:
    • Tells a story about your product or service
    • Focuses on the benefits of using your product or service
    • Asks for and entices customers to take action now
    • Tells customers what's in it for them if they act right away
  • Use attention-grabbing headlines and subheads.
  • Allow for plenty of white space.
  • Romance the reader.

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Marketing Your Web Site

An effective Web site marketing campaign involves three key elements -- the proper use of search engines plus online and offline marketing and promotional tools. To optimize your Web pages for search engines:

  • Identify search words that relate to your company/product/service.
  • Establish strategic page titles.
  • Use hidden search words.
  • Use search word density.
  • Plan for misspellings.
  • Consider multiple entry pages.
  • Monitor your search engine ranking.

Online marketing tools include:

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Implementation Tips

To assist your online implementation process, our e-commerce experts recommend the following:

  • Take advantage of the online loyalty factor.
  • Don't overlook the "About Us" and "Contact Us" pages.
  • Give online customers as much access to your internal systems as possible.
  • Use your site to educate customers.
  • Use e-mail as a customer retention tool.
  • Help your employees deal with the technological changes.
  • Consider application service providers.
  • Communicate eye to eye.
  • Get personal.
  • Build an online community.
  • Deliver real value for a person's time online.
  • Reverse-engineer your site.
  • Beware of the "Disney distraction."
  • Use buttons and text links to simplify site navigation.
  • Plan for offline data capture.
  • Consider offline follow-up.

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Working with Outside Vendors

Outsourcing the technology (not the strategy) side of e-commerce offers considerable advantages, including faster time to market, better use of internal manpower and resources, ability to keep up with changing technology and avoiding costly mistakes.

When outsourcing:

  • Don't hire a vendor/consultant you wouldn't hire as an employee.
  • Check references carefully.
  • Know the vendor's capabilities.
  • Demand transfer of knowledge.
  • Understand the two types of bids -- "time and materials" and "fixed" bids -- including the advantages and disadvantages of each.

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Security Issues: Building a Safe Web Site

Online security has to do with protecting sensitive information from online theft. Online privacy has to do with not giving or selling personal information to third parties. Successful Web sites pay close attention to both. To guard against the theft of sensitive information and give your customers a sense of security:

  • Store sensitive information on a separate server.
  • Have a security/privacy statement.
  • Include an "About Us" section to build trust with your site visitors.
  • Offer payment alternatives to people who don't want to use their credit cards online.
  • Outsource the processing of transactions and storage of sensitive information.
  • Use passwords to protect your site.

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Measuring Results

Companies with successful Web sites measure two levels of performance -- the performance of the site itself and its ability to achieve e-commerce goals and objectives. Key site performance measures include things like:

  • Unique site visits
  • Individual page hits
  • Advertising use
  • Profiles by city, state, region, country, organization or Web address
  • Activity level by time of day and day of week
  • Bandwidth
  • Banner ad hits
  • How people find out about your site

To measure your e-commerce ROI, ask one simple question: "Is our Web site making or saving us money?" If so, it's working.

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The Top 10 E-Commerce Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Beware of these common -- and potentially fatal -- e-commerce mistakes. (To find out how to avoid them, see "The Top 10 E-Commerce Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them).")

  1. Lack of clear goals and objectives
  2. Giving control of your Web project to an IT manager or Web designer
  3. Failure to promote your site
  4. Lack of scalability
  5. Failure to make it easy to do business with you
  6. Failure to understand the medium
  7. Poor site navigation
  8. Boring content
  9. Overuse of LUGs (Large Unnecessary Graphics)
  10. Failure to measure results

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