When implementing an eCommerce site, opinions will fly from all corners of your organization. You hear what the leadership team wants, what the sales team wants, what the tech team wants. But do you know what your customers want? As the end users of the site and your products or services, your customers’ desires for your eCommerce site should be front of mind during the development process.
One of our clients had a learning moment during their eCommerce implementation when they realized that they didn’t know what their customers wanted from this new site.
The Define Phase of a project sets the stage for the standards and expectations of the implementation. This is a good opportunity to consider what it is that the customer will need from this new eCommerce site, which requires a solid understanding of the customers’ priorities.
During the Define Phase of this project, our team discussed the needs of the customer with the client. Options for various assets and tools were presented, but the client decided to move forward without implementing them. This wasn’t a decision made based on budget or resources, but simply because the client did not understand their customers.
Because they didn’t realize these features were priority items for their customers, our client ran into some challenges further on in the development process. Once a site design had been created, the client took the site to some strategic customers. They were walked through the website and how it functioned. Those customers then provided competitor website information and useful features found on those sites, much of which had been discussed and declined during the Define Phase.
While the client did the right thing by involving the customer, it happened too late in the development process. Our team was able to incorporate the desired features into the site, but those tools could have been planned from the beginning. Instead, Phase 1 of the project served as live testing before finishing touches were added in Phase 2.
Had our client had a better understanding of their customers’ needs and pain points going into the Define Phase, they could have saved themselves some time and resources while still getting an optimized site for their customers.
When implementing a new eCommerce site, or even making changes to an existing site, be sure to know what your customers want and implement it when appropriate. Doing so can make the difference between a smooth and successful project and a choppy, drawn-out one.
Do you need some guidance for an upcoming eCommerce project? Contact our team of certified developers.
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