Ecommerce Best Practice Guide

Econsultancy’s Ecommerce Best Practice Guide lays out a comprehensive blueprint for businesses looking to update their existing ecommerce offering or develop a new proposition. The report gives in-depth guidance on strategy and operations, generating demand, converting demand and measurement in ecommerce.

By Neil Perkin September 2022 12:00

Econsultancy’s Ecommerce Best Practice Guide sets out a blueprint for businesses looking to review, update or create their ecommerce proposition amid rapidly shifting competitive, technological, and market contexts.

Based on the premise that the customer should always be at the heart of ecommerce strategy and execution, the report takes a four-pronged approach structured around the customer journey. It covers:

Strategy and operations: This section looks at how businesses can prime their ecommerce strategy and operations with technology, resourcing and analysis. It includes:

• Selecting a tech stack: With myriad options available for customising an ecommerce tech stack, what are the key considerations for selecting partners and platforms?
• Resourcing and structuring: How can teams and workflows be structured to support joined-up customer journeys and agile processes?
• Product assortment: What factors do businesses need to take into account when determining the right product assortment for their channel mix, and what considerations should be made for customer expectations around packaging and fulfilment?

Generating demand: This section looks at how businesses can generate demand by creating seamless customer experiences and maximising their reach using search. It covers:

• Customer focus: How can the use of segmentation, personas and customer journey mapping inform the execution of ecommerce strategies?
• Routes to market: What are the opportunities presented by emerging routes to market such as DTC, third-party marketplaces and social commerce?
• Omnichannel CX: How can brands apply omnichannel principles to their ecommerce operations to ensure a seamless shopping experience from first to last touchpoint?
• Driving traffic: How can businesses optimise paid and organic search to drive traffic to their websites?

Optimising conversion: This section discusses strategies for turning demand into conversions and maximising value to realise the true potential of ecommerce. It covers:

• Online value propositions (OVPs): What are the essential components of a successful OVP and what can brands learn from the report’s featured best-in-case examples?
• The ‘digital shelf’: Which elements make up the ‘digital shelf’ in ecommerce and how can brands ensure they are properly optimising each one to drive sales and conversion?
• Setting ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ goals: What tactics can marketers employ to improve average order value, customer retention and customer lifetime value?

Measurement and testing: This section covers measurement for ecommerce and looks at tactics for driving insights at each stage of the customer journey. It includes:

• Selecting metrics: What should marketers do to identify, organise and track the measures that matter the most?
• Measurement throughout the customer journey: What frameworks can businesses apply to ensure a holistic approach to tracking performance?
• Testing and optimisation: How can marketing teams formulate hypotheses and build a culture of testing and optimisation to enable learning from both successes and failures?