The number of online shoppers is estimated to reach 2.05 billion this year, according to Oberlo. Given the potential for profit, eCommerce startups — and their owners — must have a strong handle on project management. If you’ve got an eCommerce startup, you’ll be happy to know that you can tap into business mapping insights to give you crucial information. So with that in mind, what sort of business mapping insight can you obtain?
Business Mapping Insights: Value Proposition
In order for your startup to survive, it needs to be able to establish how it benefits consumers — otherwise known as its value proposition. Only about 2.2% of companies actually have an effective value proposition, according to Invesp. Business mapping can help you fully understand how to establish your brand’s value for the public. For example, if you’re aiming to establish a subscription box startup, you need to clarify your value proposition like client-specific box content (personalization) or being more affordable than competitors (cost-savings). Understanding your value proposition lets you narrow down the areas you need to focus on as you move forward, such as a marketing campaign to emphasize the potential cost-savings from your subscription box. Remember that your value proposition is more than just your catchphrase — it is the totality of what you are planning to serve up to the public. So make sure it’s a good one!
Business Mapping Insights: Customer Experience
In the world of online commerce, a consumer’s experience IS the product, says business author Brian Solis. If your eCommerce site fails to provide a uniquely positive experience for your buyers, you won’t have much success moving forward. In order to know what your customer’s experience might be like, it’s smart to do a map of your customer’s journey through your site. You can start with the initial engagement the client gets. Is your website interesting to look at? Is it user-friendly? 75% of consumers will abandon an eCommerce website if it's not engaging or it's hard to use, according to AquSag Technologies. Business mapping can help give you a checklist of what you can do to better by making you understand what sort of experience your consumers are having. This gives you more opportunities to upgrade them.
Business Mapping Insights: Service Vulnerabilities
In any sort of business, process management will come into contact with hurdles or bottlenecks where the flow of operations slows down or stops. For example, communication between departments or partners may be slower than intended, which can lead to delays in shipping products out. For an eCommerce startup, being unaware of existing service vulnerabilities can be potentially lethal. Business mapping helps give you a clear picture of the framework of your enterprise. Having a map of your processes makes it easier to figure out what parts of your services still need improvement.
Ecommerce startups aren’t going anywhere, but if you want your brand to stay strong, you need to be aware of what your strengths and weaknesses are. Business mapping can help you understand these things in great detail. So before you start another campaign or product launch, try to map out your systems first and reap all the benefits that the additional insight can give you.
By guest contributor Jennifer Hole