思维操作
When retailers or ecommerce agencies think operationally they are looking to forge a connection between their technology and their business efficiency, 或者运营成本.
An ecommerce agency that thinks operationally is one that leverages technology to create a nonlinear relationship between operating costs and revenue, 这, 反过来, 打破了业务增长和成本增长之间的联系. Technological decisions impact not only how the website performs but also have a commercial impact on the whole business, 扩展产品生命周期管理, 履行和物流, 退货和退款, 客户服务, 和经验.
为了达到一种操作心态, 然而, 零售商必须首先从单一的方式中解放出来，重新建立平台, and understand why it’s imperative to think beyond the capabilities of their ecommerce platform in order to find solutions that scale. 一个好的电子商务代理可以让零售商做到这一点.
拥有正确的技术组合, 或者创建一个完美的堆栈, 会影响很多领域, 例如订单交易的总服务成本, 如果减少, 可以显著提高利润率. 例如, how efficient is it for a retailer to upload a product onto their website? 这可能涉及销售, 图像, data, 还有很多人, but the time taken per product upload could be reduced with the right technology. Or, 实现可以解决常见客户服务查询的技术, 例如自动库存检查或订单跟踪, in order to significantly reduce the number of queries 客户服务s need to deal with. This reduces the need to expand 客户服务 teams when growing the retailer’s number of orders.
科技如何阻碍零售商的发展?
Mid-size retailers often have similar operational challenges to contend with but often have different approaches to how they manage their ecommerce operations or how they’ve gotten to the point where their technology is holding their business back from significant growth and revenue. 我们认为，基本上有两种类型的科技巨头, 这两者都给机构带来了不同的挑战.
- 这些零售商经营自己的网络平台, 比如Magento, 使用整体方法, which basically means one platform manages multiple functions like product information management (PIM), 搜索和销售, 订单管理. Magento and other web platforms are brilliant for ecommerce businesses and particularly for retailers with smaller transaction numbers but unfortunately, 高增长企业存在玻璃天花板. Magento is not designed to manage multiple functions in 这 way for high-growth retailers. 这是一个临界点, 所以当增长取决于可扩展性时, the retailer has to consider how to move away from 这 monolith when approaching a replatforming project.
- In-house ‘Frankensystem’ monolith These retailers built their own monolith platform in-house. 最大的挑战是他们无力改变当前的体制. It’s likely to have been architected poorly with various inputs from different people or teams over the years whereby they’ve tried to build everything into one platform that is no longer fit for purpose.
零售商可以用他们的大一统的方式运作，但总有一天会到来, 转折点, 当他们的技术和平台开始阻碍他们的发展时. 提示需要重新平台.
在重新平台化之前，零售商通常会面临哪些运营挑战?
- 对于那些已经建立了一个庞然大物的零售商来说, 一个关键的挑战是无法改变当前的体制, 这可能是由于它的架构不佳. 例如, when everything is built into one platform with various inputs from different people over time or when it is built in a platform that isn’t fit for that level of growth, 这开始阻碍他们的业务发展.
- Not appreciating the benefits of economies of scale because costs are increasing in line with revenue growth therefore they’re not realising margin gains on that growth.
- 角色和部门之间缺乏区分. 最明显的是销售、产品管理和客户服务.
How can smaller retailers recognise what the tipping point is for when to think operationally?
Smaller retailers often aren’t concerned with scaling operations like 销售 or 客户服务s, 他们只是在战斗. It’s the retailers experiencing fast growth that cares because they have to start dealing with all sorts of business and operational challenges like creating departments and teams. When you get to 这 level of operational sophistication you need systems and processes built around them that can flex and scale.
The tipping point for smaller retailers comes when they can no longer manage with that small multi-tasking team and need to turn their attention to creating departments around functions and problems. 从在线收入的角度来看，这通常在1万至2000万英镑之间.
零售商为什么要寻找一个能从运营角度思考问题的机构呢?
First, it’s important to say, not all ecommerce agencies need to think operationally. Many agencies do brilliantly by focusing on creating beautiful websites and user experiences based on an out-of-the-box web platform. There will always be a demand for 这 solution when retailers are just starting out or in the early growth stages.
但对于电子商务机构来说, 就像我们在Ampersand, 拥有高增长的零售客户, there is absolutely a need to not only think operationally but also have the skills and resources necessary to build a best-fit ecommerce solution. Retailers at 这 pivotal growth point need an agency partner that can isolate and fix one problematic system without the need for the whole ecommerce engine to be affected when just one function or process is broken or no longer fit for purpose.
There are a few practical ways in which agencies can lean into 这 mindset to help retail clients, it starts at getting to grips with business-level and operational-level objectives and KPIs. 机构不应该只考虑服务成本等常见kpi, 他们必须进一步发现对零售商最重要的指标, 这些通常都是, 是他们发明的还是以某种方式改编的.
Ecommerce agencies that think operationally want to understand the costs that chip away at the margin for the retailer. 代理商应设法查看订单的毛利率, 收购后, 销售, 航运, 材料处理, and 客户服务 costs and attempt to reduce any or all of these areas by implementing a flexible, 可扩展的技术堆栈，可以与零售商一起成长.
