E-commerce Growth is like testing a lot and testing again.
If you learn to test, you will learn how to grow businesses 3x in less than six months.
A lot has been said about e-commerce after Covid-19, but the reality is that in Latin America, you rarely find A-Players to Build, Maintain and Scale an E-commerce. Why?
I would relate it with the stage of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region and the opportunity areas of most schools and programs trying to promote entrepreneurship: Experimentations and disciplined testing.
We realized that the current work approach of most Agencies and people doing digital stuff are trying one or two different strategies without taking note of user experiences, product-market-fit validation & testing the key factors for performance marketing. Not to mention IOS 14 that came to take several out of the game.
As COO of Gauzz, Marketing Strategist & mentor of startups; I usually advise: it is all about testing it all.
If you need to validate your idea to start building something, you have to test the idea and its relevance within the market. Or you desire to launch a new product you have to experiment with it to validate the product-market fit. If you want to grow your e-commerce, you have to test your products, audiences, etc. As I said, testing a lot and testing again.
How to apply a testing method in any digital store?
- The first thing you have to test is the problem-solution fit & the relevance of your solution.
I would like to say that everything will be fine, but If you put your product or business to the test, you will probably realize that it is not worth using digital media as a sales channel. You have to be prepared… but don’t worry; you will know what to do and will never waste money cause uncertainty.
How to do it? Talk with your customers. You better understand why he does what he does and how they perceive your business and your product.
2. Next, you have to test your products in controlled experiment boxes.
Be clear about the outputs you would like to obtain to make sure of giving the correct inputs into the experimentation box(es). If you are not sure what question you want to answer, start choosing the right question. The most important question (MIQ) according to your current learning stage.
What product is better to promote now? Why one product is doing better in sales rather than others products? Do we have any temporality? What are the purchase objections of potential customers? What is the most significant characteristic of the top sales products? Who are my audiences? What is the best channel to sell it? , etc.
3. Launch “something”.
After the last stage, you will have a lot of hypotheses to validate or dismiss. The faster you test your hypothesis, the faster you will know what works and what doesn’t.
4. Learn and note learnings.
Once you have proved your hypothesis is wrong or right, you better write it down to no-repeat your mistakes or doing it intentionally. Do not forget about what you have done before. Do not waste money and time on something you already tried and forget.
5. Whatever you do, do it faster.
Once you start with testing things virtually, your competitors will know you are learning something new. So you better take advantage of information and learnings cause someone will copy your best findings sometime.
Finally, as a general summary, if you haven’t read The Lean Startup by Eric Ries., do it; if you did, apply it. As the experience you require after finishing your university, executing is wide better than knowing.
