Lately, I have been charged with thinking about the creation of an e-commerce platform for one of our clients. Naturally, I work as part of a team to develop the best solution. I am amazed me how much effort some people put into re-inventing the wheel when it comes to simple e-commerce solutions, particularly in New Zealand.
There are so many examples of global websites that have trained consumers into the best way to buy a retail product online. For that matter, we now have some pretty good local examples too. Sure they are not perfect. But they provide an e-commerce new-comer with the best starting point available. They also have reams of the analytical data which will slowly but surely help them improve the holy grail of e-commerce kpi's - shopping car conversion.
Amazon have created a number of conventions in the area of e-commerce website design and functionality. They are going to make close to $20 billion dollars in revenue this year, so they know how to sell stuff on the internet. Amazingly, they will make $191 million of this revenue through their membership only shipping club.
It is so logical to use the likes of Amazon as a starting point for all of your key functionality. If you want to put your efforts into re-inventing e-commerce, wait until you have as much customer data as Amazon. Then you can have statistical confidence that what you are about to pile thousands of dollars into will work.....
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