Why is it so important to open an online store quickly?

The owners of new online stores are usually divided into two diametrically opposed categories:

• Those who believe that opening an online store is easy. New store owners usually don't give much thought to a sales strategy. They simply open the site builder and publish the products they consider necessary. This is an acceptable technique for testing certain categories, but it doesn't work for everyone. Many stores that opened quickly also closed quickly - the goods sold poorly or the budget was not calculated correctly or there were some organizational difficulties.
• Those who believe it are very serious. The store owner studies the market, knows the competitors and tries to create the most functional business and the most functional service. The products have been selected, the range put together - now the task is to set up the processes correctly. The website is an important part of these business processes. But in some cases, the launch process is too complicated and becomes a real problem.

In this article, we talk about store owners in the second category. About those who have already tested their product, decided on a niche, put together a serious range and want to open a shop that will transform from small to large in the future.

If this is your first or even second online store, it is often difficult to separate the important from the secondary. Especially when big colleagues scare you with hundreds of thousands of customers in the database, big data, full automation and other complicated things. All these features cause high online store prices, and so does building such a customer base.

However, the most important thing when starting an online store is to launch it quickly and without delay. You also need to pay attention to profitability, as the business is usually opened with the aim of making a profit.

Why is a fast start important?

Because the market situation is constantly changing. You have the choice of a) pushing for an increase in the speed of development before such changes occur, or b) constantly changing the starting conditions, which can be disadvantageous for you. In addition, delaying the launch of an online store will result in your loss of profit, which can be roughly calculated using the following formula:

"Lost profit for the period" = "Number of planned orders" * "Average order value" - "Cost of purchasing items" - "Cost of advertising" - "Taxes and other expenses"

In other words, speed of market entry is an urgent need for you.

What does the MVP of a small and medium-sized store consist of?

We have already discovered that the earlier we start working, the faster we earn. But how do you set up a store structure so that it helps you earn money?

It is important to determine a certain starting functionality that is sufficient for the sales organization and effective customer service. In other words, the MVP (Minimum Valuable Product) of your online store.

Important! MVP is not the final version of your product. This is only the start version, which has the essentials. As soon as you have launched your online store, you can start expanding it immediately and introduce new features.

Another important point is which online store is considered small and which is considered medium-sized.

For the sake of simplicity, this article assumes the following:

• A small online store can be fully operated by 1-2 people. This is usually up to 15 orders per day, depending on the specifics. In a small online store, it is important not to miss a single customer. Complete automation of the processes is possible, but unprofitable.
• A medium-sized online store has dozens of orders per day. Customers are served by several people and there is often a shift schedule. In a medium-sized online store, it is important to automate all routine functions to the maximum and gradually eliminate the likelihood of errors related to the human factor.

Also worth mentioning are large online stores with complicated features: personal recommendations, a complex customer account, a lot of different promotions, bonus programs, cashback, automation and other interesting functions. All this seems to be indispensable, and all this costs a lot of money and time to develop.

And in our start-up phase, we should remember that the main aim of the online store is to sell.

Your small store may not have all the amenities at first - but it should fulfill its main goal: to sell the items and not prevent the store owner from receiving the money for them.

Prozess des Projektstarts

The classic development method means that you create the most basic technical task with the smallest details. Then you hand it over to the agency for online stores. You can describe the process of development planning in a complex way - of course using various techniques such as the critical path or waterfall method, creating Gantt charts or process diagrams ... But we are not dealing with details now, but with development principles.

So when we talk about the principles, the following difficulties often arise:

• During planning, you forgot something or did not take into account some details that came up during the development phase. This affects the structure of the project. Such a situation happens not only often, but almost always. You cannot plan a holistic project in a vacuum, especially without discussion with the development team.
• The situation on the market is changing. It is sometimes necessary to introduce functions that differ from those already discussed. And this is also a fairly common situation;
• Developer control is required in every project phase. Is the functionality you have described correctly understood? If your expectations do not match reality, the project will fail.

The Lean Agile development method (and especially the type of Agile) can help you optimize the process. In the case of a small online store, you can find a competent software developer and agree on the following first:

• You must adhere to a specific development budget.
• There are a number of modules that should be present on the website - and these modules should also fit into the budget. Implementation methods for these modules will be discussed with the developer.
• Sequence of module development. As a rule, the project starts with precisely defined modules, as development is possible strictly in a certain order (there is no order without a product catalog). But even these modules are not rigidly defined. This must be discussed with the developer.

Once you have determined the modules and the project budget, you can hand over some of the technical tasks during project development. The terms of reference for the design are created separately from the development, and it is desirable that you submit the design to the developer as a whole and not in parts. Development usually begins with the implementation of the catalog. Accordingly, the developer must first be given a description of the general project structure and a detailed description of the catalog and its integration with other systems, if desired. And then come the modules.

Agile means that you "keep pace" with the project. Planning allows you to split the project into small parts that can be partially adopted during the development process - for example, a separate product page or a separate message. It is possible to combine these tasks into longer sprints, but this is not necessary. It is much more important that the developers present you with a finished result for each small task at least every three days. Why exactly three? Longer periods in the event of errors lead to longer corrections. Why not after one day? Minor control is also too much, although it is possible in the case of an urgent development.

Some developers find such control unpleasant - they seem to interfere in the process and show mistrust. But this is not about mistrust, it's about proper communication. Firstly, there is no 100% guarantee that you and the developer will fully understand each other. The easiest way to eliminate this effect is to work in small sections of the project - it's easier to fix one mistake than to fix the whole project. Secondly, you can do some work on the website in parallel with development, such as uploading content to a new catalog. This reduces the development time.

How not to turn the project into a ruined building

In reality, project developers often propose both procedures and a development plan themselves, especially when it comes to a web studio. It is difficult to influence these procedures. One way or another, the project may be completed according to the schedule of the selected web studio or it may take forever. Much depends on you.

The main mistake that beginners often make is the desire to make everything perfect. Consider all the nuances. Make sure everything works correctly and is scalable. Such perfectionism often leads to the following situation.

For example, your online store is almost ready - you just need to add a few sections, set up contacts ... And suddenly ...

"There is a poorly optimized database with product properties in the catalog," says the programmer. - If we upload all this to a separate directory and also create all the property lists, you can simply add it to the website ...

The thing is, you already have a finished product database. It has been created. The work with it is configured on the website. Now you are offered to redesign half of this database in the name of future convenience. Technically, the programmer is right, he wants the best. What do you do?

I assume that at this moment the store owner is starting to think painfully - which is better: to optimize these properties now so that later, when the store is running at full speed, he doesn't have to edit half of the website ... or to postpone it until later.

In 90% of cases, the decision is: "Postpone until later".

The thing is, everything is almost ready. And your online store is at least working. Starting a change immediately means a loss of profit for you and ... the start of a building ruin. Your store will never, ever, ever open if you try to anticipate all the wishes of future customers and employees.

Another reason against endless "improvement" is that you are creating an online store for customers and not for your own developer portfolio. The buyers evaluate which functions should be available on the website and which should not.

After launching the online store, you can carry out the analyses: find out which sections users go to most often. Is it convenient for them to use the shopping cart, sorting, etc.? You can organize a customer development study - if you have not already done so at the beginning. Then you can make the organizational and financial decision to change or add some functions to the website. At the same time, your website works and brings you income.