When the power shifts to the customer
AI is shifting power from platforms and consultancies back to the customer. But it takes domain knowledge, sound architecture and consultants who actually consult.
STOP. Think about this first before you take a meeting with an e-commerce platform vendor.
The vendor of a new e-commerce system will hopefully ask you a few fundamental questions, and here are some tips on what you can prepare answers for to make the conversation better and give everyone a good chance to be relevant. Who knows, you might gain a few insights yourself along the way.
Sit still and take your fingers off the mouse, back away from the Send button and TAKE IT EASY. Here are a few tips to think about first, before you start chasing vendors to switch platform. And on top of that, I think it will not only help future vendors, it will give you insight too.
The vendor of a new e-commerce system will hopefully ask you a few fundamental questions. Think them through and have answers to them before you send that email asking for a quote. And if you know that several components and flows in the current-state picture you build should (must) change, think those through too and document them. Be prepared to be challenged, though. A good vendor will help your processes become more efficient with their domain knowledge of their systems.
As a vendor you do not need 200 pages of documentation, but if we can get 5 PowerPoint slides with a few bullet points on the following, it sets a map and an understanding of you as a client.
Markets
Where are you in the world and who do you sell to. Both countries and companies or people who are in your target audience. Explain your business today and, importantly: where do you want to be tomorrow?
Processes and systems
What systems do you have today to handle the following.
The product lifecycle today: where is a product born, and how does it travel through the systems, and what happens today in each system and why exactly there? ERP / pricing system / PIM / e-commerce platform / CMS…
The order flow: when an order is placed, what happens then? ERP, order/returns handling, payment authorisation and capture, order confirmation email, warehouse handling and of course delivery of the product happens somehow, who does it?
Product data
Summarise how you organise your product data and the data around it.
Product to variant, what is typical for you?
Number of SKUs?
Number of categories (and depth of the category tree)?
How do you work with translations?
How do you work with product images?
How much turnover of your assortment do you have per year, that is, products being retired, and how many new ones come in?
How often do you change something on a product, price, copy, image, and how quickly does it need to take effect?
Special cases
You are often blind to your own home turf and do not think about the fact that you have things that are not directly standard. It could be anything from Finnish orders being handled specially and going to a completely different warehouse system, to you making lots of manual exceptions for certain customers, or just having very advanced logic for showing whether an item is available to order or not.
Summary
If you have this down, you have a good foundation to give a vendor for a first meeting. It saves time and energy, and their architects will be much happier when they come to the meeting to pitch their solution, which in the end will make everyone happier. OK, time to get going, you have an email to send and an organisation to run.
There is quite a bit more to think about, and if you want support and help, just get in touch with us at Commerce Mind. We are experts at supporting procurements and can also help all the way through a project. With us, you move faster.
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