Ever delivered an ecommerce project late or over budget?
You’re not alone. Industry stats show only roughly 34% of organisations "mostly" or "always" complete projects on time and on budget, highlight a major industry challenge.
Amongst the top reasons identified for these numbers are scope creep and inefficient resource allocation.
Although project delivery is partially dependent on factors outside your sphere of control such as client collaboration, here are a few things you can do to minimise late deliveries and keep costs under control.
The scope
Whether you’re re-platforming a retailer or building a new ecommerce store from scratch, the first thing you need to do is define the scope.
This is especially important to ensure everyone involved understands and agrees what’s being done, how, and the timeframe for key tasks.
It also helps prevent scope creep, which often leads to projects going unfinished or cancelled, having gone over budget with no end in sight.
When it comes to project scope, there are some key areas to consider:
Front-end implementation: Factor time for design changes and delays.
Time scales: what are the expected timeframes for project goals and completion, and are they realistic to both parties?
Data imports: Whose job is it to organise, translate and parse the data?
Integrations: Assess existing integrations and provide the retailer with suitable alternatives if needed.
Transfer of knowledge: Is the retailer expecting / in need of training on their new platform?
Costs: Outline and agree these upfront, including costs for additional or alternative work.
KPIs: It’s important to measure and understand the retailer’s current baselines, so you know what ‘good’ looks like. Then define objectives to meet or exceed these.
Duncan Woodward, Managing Director at Square Owl, explains:
It’s important to challenge a retailer to focus on their requirements and KPIs as this helps agencies to propose new opportunities that add real business value based on their experience.
Often, agencies/developers will take the path of least resistance and re-spec the current situation for a client based on legacy integrations or processes regardless.
This can lead to lost opportunities such as cost savings and/or continue to pose a barrier to conversion the client wasn’t even aware of.
Internal appraisal and project management
It’s not uncommon for agencies to overpromise during a pitch and worry about delivery later on. But if your team is already stretched too thin, it's likely you will fail to deliver the project, or end up delivering a substandard result.
Your whole team, from developers and designers to salespeople, should be consulted during this appraisal. This will enable you to check the resources, skills, and expertise needed against what you have available.
If you don’t have enough in-house, consider bringing in some external help.
When it comes to project management, experience and methodology are key. This goes far beyond task allocation.
Delivering a project with the scale of an ecommerce replatform often involves coordination across multiple teams, several iteration and testing cycles, and involvement of C-level layers within the business to ensure overall alignment.
Ability to engage senior stakeholders, identify and communicate risks, contingency plan, and gain commitment from all parties on the agreed course of action are skills that will greatly impact project outcomes.
Sarkis Salleh, Managing Director at ecommerce development company ITQ Digital, recommends consideration of resourcing on the customer side too:
We often find that ITQ is ahead of schedule on a project, but that the customer has not allocated sufficient resources or expertise to complete their deliverables.
The more clarity you can provide on who and what will be required from the customer’s side at the project kick off stage, the more likely the project will be to succeed.
Accountability
Accountability cements a culture of responsibility and steers everyone down the same path towards a common goal.
When implemented correctly, accountability structures provide guidance while bringing a sense of ownership over one's work.
Accountability should also be universal - that is, implemented across all layers of the business. Transparent leadership and equitable distribution of responsibility create stronger, more collaborative teams, where each member feels equally valued and respected in their work, and therefore more invested in the success of a project.
Not just that. Transparency builds trust, and trust invites honesty. It holds space for people to raise concerns early, so they can be addressed promptly, instead of letting problems and blockers go unspoken and surfacing later on.
Clarity is another vital element of accountability. Not simply clear goals and task allocation, but a shared understanding of the why behind different decisions, and a collective agreement on the best way forward. Only then, ownership becomes truly shared.
Honest and frequent communication between all parties involved further helps ensure everything runs smoothly and tackle any obstacles before they become too big. It also helps manage expectations early on and avoid customer disappointment.
Consistent communication
As previously outlined, regular contact plays a key role in ensuring teams stay in sync, while keeping the retailer informed of the progress being made.
Establishing clear, consistent communication channels doesn't just improve business relationships. It helps you deliver better projects.
There are several communication techniques, and effective project management often uses a mix of those depending on what's being achieved. These include:
Interactive communication
Usually involves in-person meetings, phone calls or video conferences, and it is used mostly when sharing sensitive and important information to be immediately acknowledged and actioned.
Interactive communication is particularly useful for gauging what you require from clients, or brainstorming sessions - instances where conversation and real-time back and forward are the best way to get clarity and agreement on the way forward.
Push communication
Best for communication that isn't time-sensitive or urgent, it includes emails, newsletters, project reports. It can look like weekly check-ins, monthly updates, or sending a lot of information and documentation changes to clients.
Pull communication
This refers to information being accessible when needed, such as in websites and landing pages, knowledge bases and management software and apps.
It can be particularly effective when clients want to access project information outside other forms of communication. It helps promote transparency and foster trust amongst everyone involved.
Ultimately, regular, consistent communication leads to smoother processes and fewer misunderstandings, and consequently increased customer confidence and satisfaction overall.
Changes
It’s not unheard of for a retailer to want changes part way through a project.
This is why the project scope needs to be determined at the very beginning.
Last minute changes outside the original scope should be thoroughly vetted and measured against the main project goals to decide whether they are necessary or a "nice to have".
Consequent delays and additional costs should also be clearly communicated to the retailer, so they can make an informed decision.
Who knows - the retailer may decide that the original plan is more appealing!
Staying on track with Aero
At Aero, we've built a platform that empowers agencies to build fast, scalable sites that meet the needs of retailers out-of-the-box, with ability to extend and customise as needed, and as client requirements evolve.
That means fewer limitations and less time and resources spend on costly add-ons.
We work closely with our agencies, providing extensive documentation and on-going dev support to make building a store in Aero as seamless and straightforward as possible. Get in touch with our team today to see exactly how.
