Category: ecommerce strategy

Ecommerce Information Architecture

I’ve worked with many clients (and on my own sites) where avoidable structural/data problems add unnecessary complexity to website management.

I say avoidable because they’re usually a result of not asking the right questions upfront before the site is built. It’s a tough task to cover all bases for an ecommerce platform because there are so many factors in play that can affect elements like on-site UX, business reporting, data flows and SEO.

In my experience, it’s a continuous learning curve, picking up insight from specialists along the way to build a (hopefully) thorough knowledge base of what information you need to effectively build a website, what format the data needs to be in and what it needs to do e.g. data field X in the CMS drives site search results.

Information Architecture (IA) may sound dull but it’s a critical component of ecommerce and helps put the right data structures and standards in place to enable, amongst other things:

  • Site & catalogue structure
  • Core processes & functions e.g. site search
  • Business reporting & web analytics
  • SEO.

My Econsultancy guest blog takes a look at some of the key components and guidelines for what ecommerce teams need to think about. It’s split into three parts that I’ll publish over the next three weeks to break up the hefty tome I’ve written to do this justice (and it’s still high-level!).

I’d welcome comments to add to my views and share advice/experience of what works, what mistakes to avoid and useful resources to use. Hope you find it useful reading.

Thanks, James

5 Ways Crowdfunding Benefits Retail Ecommerce

The UK’s innovation agency, NESTA, predicts the UK crowdfunding industry to raise £14bn in 2016. That’s a big number considering the global market was expected to reach $6bn in 2013, up from $2.7bn in 2012.

The growth is being driven by an increase in platforms, rapid adoption of crowdfunding as a finance source by businesses and growing consumer awareness.

Crowdfunding is providing the platforms to connect many parties, both individuals and businesses, with the goal of financing projects and ventures.

In my Econsultancy guest blog I look at 5 ways crowdfunding can benefit retail ecommerce.

Thanks, James

Ecommerce Delivery & Returns Battleground

Why is delivery and returns a key battleground for retail ecommerce? Quite simply, delivery and returns is seen by customers as far more than an essential website policy; it’s a key competitive differentiator. The convenience of the service provided influences shopping habits.

The Independent on Sunday revealed that during December 2012, an estimated 225,000 parcels each day failed to arrive when promised. In an article titled “The great online delivery scandal”, they revealed the impact of poor service delivery on customers’ future shopping habits. Failing to live up to promises is damaging for your brand.

My Postcode Anywhere guest blog discusses this in more detail.

Thanks, James