What is Strategy as a Service?
A Grow Pro subscription provides Strategy-as-a-Service. But what is strategy and why do I need it for my ecommerce site?
When Wayne Campbell meets the spirit of Jim Morrison he is told “If you book them, they will come”.
When we get to the end of the Waynes World film there are three endings:
- Jim Morrison tells them no-one will come but that all that matters is that they tried.
- They drive off a cliff in glory
- The bands turn up, rock out and are a huge success
Ecommerce stores often end up with endings one or two because they do not focus on their strategy.
They don’t get the sales or they drive themselves off the cliff. The only way to get the customers to turn up (and be a huge success) is to have a solid ecommerce strategy from the start.
Wayne did put in the effort, he travelled all the way to good ol’ London to get Del Preston! And heh presto, it paid off in ending number 3!
[clickToTweet tweet=”‘If you book the bands, they might not come’ – Why strategy is essential in ecommerce” quote=”If you book the bands, they might not come”]
Business never ‘just happens’. It takes iteration upon iteration. It takes insight and intelligence from which you can build your strategy for growth.
I often say building an ecommerce store is like opening a bricks and mortar shop in the middle of the desert. No one will visit you just because you are there.
You need excellent products, but also large signs that are well positioned to get footfall. Strategy is looking at the whole chain of processes that lead to a sale and optimising it for growth.
When it’s strategy and when it’s tactics
Building signs is a tactic. But where to place them and who to show them, that is your strategy. It’s a vital pillar of your growth and without it you are gambling.
Tactics require strategy. If you go sign building without strategy you will point the wrong people in the wrong direction. One requires the other.
Strategy runs across all stages of the business cycle. From product design to marketing to dispatch. It informs the transaction you have with your customer.
The whole chain leading up to the customer receiving the product needs to be in place. Strategy looks at what links the entire chain together and which links need to be improved.
Who creates the strategy?
When a company is born it is rarely equipped with a full set of staff. Roles and responsibilities grow with the company.
A key role of your ECommerce team is your strategist. At the start the roles and responsibilities are shared by a single person or a small team. This is a smart way to start. Be clear about the responsibilities involved so strategy is not ignored.
Strategy should be determined by data because it informs the commercial landscape you operate on. This is collected from your analytics package and ecommerce platform. However the important skill is to interpret the data.
Intelligent interpretation of data is often the most lacking feature of analytics packages. Most provide an array of graphs, charts and figures but ignore the relationships between data and how they shape your growth.
That’s why we built the free Grow plugin which plugs into your metrics and provides the option to set targets. We then can compare where we are against where we want to be. These targets are the strategists bearings through the data.
Our paid Grow Pro subscription provides the strategical support and advice to set these targets and then to achieve them, so you can focus on your business.
Head to our home page and add your site metrics to our metrics calculator. You can see how optimising your key metrics can bring profound effects on your revenue. The way to achieve this is through a solid strategy, which we can help you achieve.
If you want to grow your ecommerce revenue use Grow Pro.
How are you currently monitoring your ecommerce progress and what challenges are you facing? Let us know in the comments