E-Commerce

Introduction to e-commerce

The dot com bubble has burst. It is now back to normal. Return on investment. Payback within months rather than years.

What is the secret of successful e-commerce ?

Answer: There is no secret.

It's Easy
If people tell you its easy, it’s a myth. If running your business is easy then that may just transfer to your e-commerce business model. If you have a supply chain and you want to build relationships with your customers, the model can quickly become complex.

It's cheap
You can buy cheap, but as with all things in life, you tend to get what you pay for. You can do it yourself and save money, but using plumbing as an analogy, changing a washer is a lot different to fitting a new central heating boiler with all the attendant health and safety considerations. Call the professionals and buy wisely.

It comes out of a box
True up to a point. E-commerce out of the box is perfectly possible. Entity can help you with packages like Shop Assistant at the small end and IBM’s WebSphere for the medium and larger sized to achieve e-commerce in short time frames and at defined costs.

Everyone’s doing it
Not everyone, it suits some businesses better than others. However a web presence is becoming expected. It is the directory of choice that many buyers whether retail or commercial use as their reference.

It's lucrative
It can be if the business strategy and the business model are well defined and well executed.

The web levels the playing field
No, like many markets the initial phase sees a plethora of entrants, there follows a shake out and consolidation. In this phase the big brands with deep pockets do have advantages. However web dynamics can lead to wild fire success. A properly hosted website with scalability can grow your business as fast as you can deliver. You need to be prepared.

It leads to disintermediation
The web was supposed to cut out the middlemen and we were told that direct selling would take over. In fact it has spawned a whole new generation of intermediaries who are cataloguing and organising the deluge of information to make buying easier for the consumer.

Hopefully that has debunked some of the myths of the e-commerce world.
To do e-commerce properly, you need a good plan and good execution.

What can Entity do for you ?

Consider an Executive Assessment as a way to identify if you have a project that has a good probability of providing a good return in a reasonable timescale.

If you know what you want, Entity can bring to bear its development team and process whether you want to spend very small sums and start commerce.

Entity can design, build and implement your e-commerce system and project manage your system to deliver on time, to budget and to specification. Entity can integrate to supplier or customer systems to give you greater efficiencies. See Business Integration.

Entity can advise on your hosting requirements and is a Synergy business partner of Pasporte.

Once in operation Entity can provide ongoing application support.

How much does it cost ?

How long is a piece of string ?
From £5000 to £50,000 to £500,000

Realistically it is much better to identify the key requirements and a rough budget, and then to provide some solution options. You will also need to decide the balance of your priorities between schedule, function and cost. See the software trade-off triangle. For example, you can hold down cost if you are prepared to compromise on the delivery schedule and functionality.

The Software Trade Off Triangle

Having made your budget, divide that budget into three. A third of your budget should be allocated for:

development
hosting and other operational costs
marketing

Are you ready to talk ?