Background information

Tell the story of how you conceived your business idea. Say you’re a former school teacher who discovered your artistic flair from making handmade pottery in your garage on weekends. Describe how your business has grown and changed since you first started it.

Your team and key people

List the key personnel in your company. Aside from the founders and executive team, who keeps the business running each day? Here are a few examples:

• Company owner — that’s probably you.
• CEO — that’s probably also you.
• Partners.
• Management team.
• Customer service manager.
• Logistics manager.
• PR and social media specialist.
• Advertising manager.
• SEO manager.
• Copywriters.

Conduct market research.

Ecommerce businesses face intense competition and are liable to market disruptions because they rely on third parties (suppliers, shipping companies, wholesalers) to deliver a product or service. Knowing the market in and out will help you build a more resilient business.

A market analysis considers your ideal customer (their purchase habits and behaviors), competitors (their strengths and weaknesses), market conditions (industry trends and long-term outlook), and how your business fits into this landscape.

The point of a target market analysis is to:

• Identify the most and least valuable markets.
• Develop buyer personas.
• Find gaps in the market to fill.
• Assess the viability of a product or service.
• Improve business strategy.

Market opportunities

The first step to identifying your target market is determining your total addressable market (TAM) — the maximum market size for your product or service. Who are your customers? What are their demographic and psychographic traits? When and how often will they buy your product?

The best way to obtain a high-level overview of your customer base is to consult your social media and web analytics. These dashboards show where your customers live, their age, gender, general interests and more. You can also use U.S. Census Bureau data to pad up this information.

Competitive analysis

Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your current and potential competitors. First, find out who your direct and indirect competitors are. You can perform a Google search of businesses that sell similar products or scope out rivals in your local area.

Here’s what you need to know about your competitors:

• What markets and segments they serve.
• What benefits they offer.
• Why their customers buy from them.
• Details of products and services, including pricing and promotional strategies.

Search for publicly available information about your competitors. Aside from that, do some of your own primary research. Visit their website and complete an order or visit their physical outlet.

Next, analyze the information. Is there a segment of the market your competition has overlooked? Is there a product they don’t supply? Did you have a bad customer experience when you walked into the store?

Detail your competitive advantage in your business plan. Don’t just list things that your competitors do — that’s not analysis. The competitive analysis section aims to persuade the reader that you are knowledgeable about the competition and that your business idea has a significant advantage over the competition.

Products and services

List the products and services you provide and how customers will access them. If you’re selling digital products, will customers have to stream or download the content? Do they pay a subscription fee to access a content platform or do they pay for each individual content piece? If you’re providing a service, will you provide it on physical premises or will you travel to customers’ homes? Will you sell physical products in a physical store or online? What is your website like? List each product, including a short product description and pricing information.

Develop a marketing plan.

You need a go-to-market strategy if you haven’t already launched your business. How will you spread the word about your business? How and where will you advertise and what is your budget? If you run social media ads, for example, what platforms will you use and who is your target audience? Will you do content marketing and SEO? A thorough marketing plan answers all of these important questions.

Marketing channels

Define which channels match your consumer demographic. Do your potential customers spend time on Facebook or do they prefer YouTube? First, figure out where your potential customers are. Next, create attention-grabbing marketing strategies and use them to reach your customer base.

Paid marketing channels

• PPC advertising: Advertise on Google’s search engine and pay only once someone clicks on your ad. You can bid for ad placement in the search engine’s sponsored links when someone searches a keyword related to your business offering.
• Affiliate marketing: Embed links to another business’s products in your content and receive a commission when someone makes a purchase using your unique affiliate link.
• Social media ads: Run paid ads on social media apps and platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to reach targeted audiences. Ads can use different creatives such as images, videos and GIFs.
• Influencer marketing: Work with a popular influencer who will promote your products to their followers. Influencers are paid based on conversions or reach.

Organic marketing channels

Brands must use an organic marketing strategy to build brand awareness and engagement and drive website traffic.

Examples include:

• Search engine optimization (SEO): Optimize your website, web pages and blog posts for maximum discoverability on search engines. This involves doing keyword research for your industry, creating high-quality content that attracts and converts and using keywords in the right places.
• Social media posts: Organic social media posts build brand awareness and humanize the brand by providing a behind-the-scenes look at the company and allowing you to share engaging visual content to inspire, educate and entertain.
• Blogger networks: Collaborating with trusted bloggers on link exchanges can help you build website backlinks, improving your search engine ranking.
• Content marketing: Organic content includes blog posts, white papers, SEO pages, and more. This gives you content to post on social media and improves the discoverability of your website. Websites that publish high-quality content consistently rank higher in search results.
• Email marketing: Create email templates for new and potential customers, cart abandonment, promotions and announcements and more.

Logistics and Operations plan

This portion of the business plan covers what you physically need to run your ecommerce company. Basically, it outlines how you’ll manage the flow of goods from the supplier (you or a third party) to the consumer. You cannot start a business without an established supply chain.

Your logistics and operations plan should cover the following:

• Suppliers: Where do your raw materials or products come from? Do you work with a manufacturer who produces your product idea or are you reselling products from a supplier, wholesaler or distributor? What is the minimum order value? Do they require payment upfront or after the sale? Do you have a backup supplier in case demand spikes or there is a problem with fulfillment?
• Production: Will you create your own products or use a third-party manufacturer or dropshipping company? If you’re creating your own products, where will this be done? What assets and equipment do you need? What are your operating costs?
• Shipping and fulfillment: Outline how the product will reach the end consumer. How long will it take you to pack and ship products to customers? Will you use a third-party shipper? Will you ship internationally?
• Inventory: How much inventory will you keep on hand and where will you put it? How will you track incoming and outgoing inventory? Do you need warehouse storage space?

Establish a financial plan.

The financial section of your business plan is where you prove the feasibility of your business idea and calculate your startup costs. It includes financial projections and statements that show your business’s current financial position and project where you hope to be in the future. This is one of the essential components of the business plan, particularly if you are seeking investment funding, a bank loan or a business partner.

Income statement

In this document, you’ll forecast the company’s revenues and expenses during a particular period. Total revenue is the sum of both operating and non-operating revenues while total expenses include those incurred by primary and secondary activities.

If you subtract your expenses from your revenue sources, you’ll come up with your bottom line (profit or loss).

Balance sheet

A balance sheet helps you calculate how much equity you have in your business. It summarizes your company’s assets (what you own), your liabilities (what you owe) and equity (money invested into the business plus profits).

A balance sheet enables you to calculate your net worth. All of your assets (machinery, inventory, business premises, etc.) go in a column on the left and your liabilities (accounts and wages payable, business loan repayments, business credit card payments, taxes) go in a column on the right. If you subtract your liabilities from your assets, you get your business’ shareholder equity.

Cash-flow statement

This document shows how much cash is generated and spent over a time period. Cash flow determines whether your business is primarily gaining or losing money. Positive cash flow and profit margins are important because it enables your business to repay bank loans, purchase commodities and keep the lights on.

Artificial Intelligence in Ecommerce: How This Rapidly Evolving Tech Will Change the Online Storefront

E-COMMERCE

Odoo 18 easily connects with other company modules and provides a complete eCommerce management solution. Odoo 18 gives companies an all-in-one platform for effectively managing their online sales operations with capabilities including order processing, product catalog management, and website construction.

A new menu called Shop will appear on the page when the eCommerce module has been installed. From there, customers can easily buy products.

Users can improve the functionality and user-friendliness of the page with the Odoo 18 website builder. Customers can also utilize the Rating option which is user-friendly and enables the installation of certain themes, as shown below, to contribute ratings to our page.

There are different blocks, such as intro, column, content, image, people, text, contact and form, social debug, product, event, and blogs, as in the below screenshot.

The user can alter any element of the product on several pages with Odoo 18. When we choose a product on the store page and choose the edit option, for instance, we are shown a variety of characteristics unique to product pages, such as layout, which contains a grid and options list, size, style, and a top bar, among many other features. A special area for product customisation is also available, with choices for badges, photos, reordering, and size.

As seen below, the user can also include buttons like Add to Cart, Wishlist and Compare to make it simpler for customers to access.

Furthermore, the customer can upload additional photographs from the product's customization page, as shown below. Customers may more easily ascertain if a product is tax-included or excluded with Odoo 18's tax indicator functionality.

The customer can additionally add many photographs to the product by selecting the "Extra Images" option on the product form that is situated beneath the sales page.

All of these photos are accessible to the buyer via the website, as shown below.

The image size will appear in the respective tab. The width field allows for formatting, picture width, and the conversion of the format to a web image, which will result in a compressed size. The quality of the image can be updated or altered. Similarly, the various parameters can be updated, like background image, visibility, animation, image formats, etc. Under the column section, you have the background, border, round corner, shadow, visibility, and animation.

Under the image section, you have the media and re-order option, which can be used to replace or remove the image accordingly.

accessible to the buyer via the website, as shown below.

Customization is possible at different stages of the purchasing process

Users can quickly add a new product to the eCommerce website from the front end as well. To add a new product, click the New button, as in the image below.

From the list of available options, which includes, among other things, pages, forums, and blogs, pick the Product option.

You can enter the product details in the new popup window that appears as a result. There, include the product name, customer tax, and sales price. After that, put the thing away.

After that, users can alter this section to add more blocks and further personalize the website.

Users can add a picture of the product by selecting the Main Image option.

Within the CUSTOMIZE section, there is an Extra Images option. You can submit several photographs of the product on the website by using the Add button.

Other adjustments, including customer sharing and rating, can then be enabled. A new rating star can appear beneath the product name if the Customer Rating is enabled. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are displayed next to the sharing terms and conditions in Customer Share choices.

Personalization also enables the view of comparison choices, buy, wishlist, and product variants. Details like the specifications, image width, layout, zoom, and thumbnails can then be supplied.

After you've completed all the required changes, click "Save." The product will thereafter be available on the website. Additionally, customization makes it possible to view product variations, buy options, wishlists, and comparison options. Then, you can provide information about the image width, layout, zoom, thumbnails, and specifications.

Advances in Technology and Ecommerce

From digital transformation and software-as-a-service to virtual reality and artificial intelligence, technology keeps pushing the limits of what ecommerce can do. 

With compounding advancements in technology, there’s something new competing for online retailers’ attention every day. You’ll never find yourself at a loss for something new and different to try — the real task is identifying the best opportunities for your ecommerce business.

AI Is Bringing Change to the Ecommerce Industry

Artificial intelligence isn’t just a novel technology implemented for its “cool factor.” Implementing AI has the potential to impact any number of business functions across your organization. 

To understand how it could impact your business, it helps to have an understanding of the components of artificial intelligence. 

The definition of AI is broad, and encompasses data mining, natural language processing, and machine learning.

• Data mining refers to the gathering of both current and historical data to inform predictions. 
• Natural language processing focuses on human-computer interaction and how computers interpret natural human language. 
• Machine learning concerns using a collection of algorithms to apply past experience or provide examples to solve a problem. Deep learning “involves layering algorithms in an effort to gain greater understanding of the data.”

Over the past couple of years, AI technology has matured and become a powerful tool to boost sales and optimize operations. Even many small ecommerce businesses are using technology with some kind of AI capability.

Benefits of Using Artificial Intelligence in Ecommerce Companies

Amazon has long recognized the benefits of artificial intelligence and related technologies. The behemoth ecommerce company uses machine learning to improve product selection and user experience and to optimize logistics.

A recent publication from McKinsey & Company and the Retail Industry Leaders Association named seven imperatives for rethinking retail in 2021, and every single one could in some way be supported by some type of AI-informed technology.

1. More targeted marketing and advertising.

Personalization is a top priority, according to surveyed retailers, but only 15% say they’ve fully implemented personalization across channels. Stand out from the crowd with a more personalized message and have one-to-one conversations with your customers. 

Advances in AI and machine learning have enabled deep personalization techniques to customize content by user. By analyzing big data from purchase histories and other customer interactions, you can zero in on what your customers really want and deliver the message that will most resonate.

2. Increased customer retention.

Delivering targeted marketing and advertising messages personalized for their customers can increase retention. McKinsey omnichannel personalization research indicated there’s a 10-15% uplift potential in revenue and retention from omnichannel personalization strategies. 

The report reads: “A critical element of personalization is building better data and insights on customers, an asset that also generates additional value across the value chain. … Our research suggests the ROI for personalization will quickly outpace that of traditional mass marketing.”

3. Seamless automation.

The goal of automation is to accomplish a task with as little human intervention as possible. That can mean anything from scheduling emails in a CRM or marketing tool, using Zapier to automate tasks or leveraging advanced technology to help with hiring. 

In the context of future ecommerce trends, however, some of the most commonly talked about today are robotics and machine learning.

AI can play a big role in helping you automate the repetitive tasks that keep your online store functioning. With AI, you can automate things like product recommendations, loyalty discounts, low-level support, and more.

4. Efficient sales process.

Using AI can help you create a more efficient sales process by gathering data about your customers, automate follow-up abandoned cart inquiries, and more. You can help move customers through the funnel by having them engage with chatbots for simple questions.

AI Use Cases in Ecommerce

There are plenty of use cases in ecommerce for AI, and you’re probably familiar with a lot of them — you just might not know that the technology they’re built on is actually related to AI. Here are six of the most common: 

1. Personalized product recommendations.
2. Pricing optimization.
3. Enhanced customer service.
4. Customer segmentation.
5. Smart logistics. 
6. Sales and demand forecasting.

1. Personalized product recommendations.

It’s easier than ever to collect and process customer data about their online shopping experience. Artificial intelligence is being used to offer personalized product recommendations based on past customer behavior and lookalike customers.

Websites that recommend items you might like based on previous purchases use machine learning to analyze your purchase history. Retailers rely on machine learning to capture data, analyze it, and use it to deliver a personalized experience, implement a marketing campaign, optimize pricing, and generate customer insights.

Over time, machine learning will require less and less involvement from data scientists for everyday types of applications in ecommerce companies.

2. Pricing optimization.

AI-enabled dynamic pricing is a strategy of changing your product price based on supply and demand. With access to the right data, today’s tools can predict when and what to discount, dynamically calculating the minimum discount necessary for the sale.

3. Enhanced customer service.

With virtual assistants and chatbot technology, you can deliver the appearance of higher touch customer support. While these bots aren’t completely self-reliant, they can facilitate simple transactions, leaving live support agents able to focus on more complex issues. 

Virtual agents also have the advantage of being available 24/7, so low-level questions and issues can be addressed at any time of day, without making your customer wait.

4. Customer segmentation.

Access to more business and customer data and processing power is enabling ecommerce operators to understand their customers and identify new trends better than ever.

In an insight from Accenture, they write, “AI systems can explore highly complex and varied options for customer engagement very quickly, and continuously optimize their performance as more data becomes available. This means marketers can set parameters and allow the AI to optimize and learn to achieve precision.”

5. Smart logistics.

According to a report from Emerging Tech Brew, “Machine learning’s predictive powers shine in logistics, helping to forecast transit times, demand levels, and shipment delays.” 

Smart logistics or intelligent logistics, is all about using real-time information through sensors, RFID tags, and the like, for inventory management and to better forecast demand. Machine learning systems become smarter over time to build better predictions for their supply chain and logistics functions.

6. Sales and demand forecasting.

Particularly in a world during and after COVID-19, you’ll want to plan your inventory on both real-time and historical data. Artificial intelligence can help you do just that. A recent McKinsey report suggests that investment in real-time customer analytics will continue to be important to monitor and react to shifts in consumer demand that can be harnessed for price optimization or targeted marketing.

How to Implement Artificial Intelligence Into Ecommerce

It’s always tempting to jump into new, exciting technologies. But you’ll want to have a roadmap before jumping into implementing a new program, to make sure you don’t lose a lot of time and money on false starts.

1. Create a strategy.

You have to start somewhere — and your strategy will lay out the path you need to take from there to your AI goal. Don’t just punt this to a newly hired AI expert or your CIO or CTO. 

Really put some thought into what you want to accomplish with AI. Take a practical approach, and don’t forget to start small. You can always build on your successes down the road.

2. Find narrow use cases that are relevant to the overall corporate strategy.

The most successful AI use cases live at the intersection of business objectives, data differentiation, and readily available artificial intelligence models. All that to say — you should focus on revenue-generating opportunities where you have a data advantage and in a context appropriate for proven AI technology.

3. Leverage third-party expertise.

Even if you’re an armchair AI aficionado, you’ll want to accept expert assistance on this one. Bring in a tiger team on a project or part-time basis to dig in and help you build a strategic AI roadmap. Those third parties can be helpful in bringing your MVP (minimum viable product) to life as well.

4. Build a full-scale solution.

Once you’re confident in what your team has produced, it’s time to build the full scale solution. Don’t be surprised if it still takes some iterations before it works like you expect. As you and your team become more comfortable working in the realm of AI, you’ll start to see greater benefit from the projects you implement.