If you are planning to take up a product management role (or similar such role) for an E-Commerce organization/startup, here's a list of pointers for you to get started, assuming the product is already launched. Hope this list will help you get a head-start in your new role and will give you some direction to think about where and how you want to take the product forward:
Current state of market for the product category to be sold
- Target segments
- Estimated market size
- Buyer personas
From a customer's point of view,
- Why do customers purchase this product category? What problems does it solve for them?
- What decision criteria do they use to evaluate before making a purchase?
- How do customers purchase this product?
- What are the different channels? (wholesalers, retailers etc)
- Purchase frequency
- What issues they face
- during the product discovery phase
- during the purchase phase
- during the post-purchase phase
- Which of these issues are very important to your target audience?
Your E-Commerce product
- What is the product vision?
- Who are your competing against?
- Online world
- Offline world
- What is your USP? Differentiating factors
- as compared to other online players
- as compared to offline channels
- Supply chain - the entire chain of events from the time consumer visits your site, creates an order, makes payment until the time the product is actually delivered
Similar products / Inspirations from other markets
Who all are involved?
- Suppliers
- Logistics providers
- Packaging providers
- Payment gateways
- Content editors
- Web hosting solution providers
- e-commerce platform (if not built in-house)
Revenue model
- from customers
- Markups on products
- Payment related charges
- Shipping charges
- Convenience charges (Example : Express delivery)
- from suppliers
- Commissions on sales
- Channel signup charges
- Products hosting charges
- Payment related charges
Your product
- Key principles/focus areas
- Transaction path
- Registration
- Search
- Catalog
- Product description
- Shopping cart
- Order creation
- Order confirmation
- Payment
- Communication
- Collaboration/Sharing
- Referrals
- Compatibility with Non-PC devices (smart phones, tablets)
Suppliers
- Hiring/On-board process (Self-serve / Assisted)
- Signup
- Product catalog upload
- Preferential catalog display
- Price management (Markups / Discounts)
- Marketing campaigns (Coupons / offers / promotions)
- Sales analytics
Cost structure
- customers
- customer acquisition costs
- discounts on products
- referral incentives
- content providers/editors
- content charges (description, pictures, reviews etc)
Engineering
- Product Architecture
- Data storage
- Caching
- Deployment
- Backup/Recovery
Launch plan / Go-to-market
- Awareness
- Teaser campaigns (Signup offers, Limited invites)
- Social media campaigns
- Sustenance
- Coupons/Discounts
- Affiliate marketing
- Strategic partnerships
- Organic search
- Search Engine Marketing
- Display ads
Product Performance
- Tracking analytics
- Page views
- Number of searches
- Unique users
- Referral sites
- High demand products (product categories if selling multiple categories)
- Number of successful transactions
- Number of failed transactions
- Failure reasons (dropouts, payment failures)
- Average Transaction size per product category
- Registered users
- Transactions from new users
- Transactions from returning users
- Device-specific trends (PC and non-PC devices)
I found this article which I stumbled upon recently to be very useful for product management in the e-commerce world - http://www.beingpractical.com/2012/03/23/what-has-product-management-got-to-do-with-ecommerce/
Would love to hear your comments/feedback if I have missed out something more.
Current state of market for the product category to be sold
- Target segments
- Estimated market size
- Buyer personas
From a customer's point of view,
- Why do customers purchase this product category? What problems does it solve for them?
- What decision criteria do they use to evaluate before making a purchase?
- How do customers purchase this product?
- What are the different channels? (wholesalers, retailers etc)
- Purchase frequency
- What issues they face
- during the product discovery phase
- during the purchase phase
- during the post-purchase phase
- Which of these issues are very important to your target audience?
Your E-Commerce product
- What is the product vision?
- Who are your competing against?
- Online world
- Offline world
- What is your USP? Differentiating factors
- as compared to other online players
- as compared to offline channels
- Supply chain - the entire chain of events from the time consumer visits your site, creates an order, makes payment until the time the product is actually delivered
Similar products / Inspirations from other markets
Who all are involved?
- Suppliers
- Logistics providers
- Packaging providers
- Payment gateways
- Content editors
- Web hosting solution providers
- e-commerce platform (if not built in-house)
Revenue model
- from customers
- Markups on products
- Payment related charges
- Shipping charges
- Convenience charges (Example : Express delivery)
- from suppliers
- Commissions on sales
- Channel signup charges
- Products hosting charges
- Payment related charges
Your product
- Key principles/focus areas
- Transaction path
- Registration
- Search
- Catalog
- Product description
- Shopping cart
- Order creation
- Order confirmation
- Payment
- Communication
- Collaboration/Sharing
- Referrals
- Compatibility with Non-PC devices (smart phones, tablets)
Suppliers
- Hiring/On-board process (Self-serve / Assisted)
- Signup
- Product catalog upload
- Preferential catalog display
- Price management (Markups / Discounts)
- Marketing campaigns (Coupons / offers / promotions)
- Sales analytics
Cost structure
- customers
- customer acquisition costs
- discounts on products
- referral incentives
- content providers/editors
- content charges (description, pictures, reviews etc)
Engineering
- Product Architecture
- Data storage
- Caching
- Deployment
- Backup/Recovery
Launch plan / Go-to-market
- Awareness
- Teaser campaigns (Signup offers, Limited invites)
- Social media campaigns
- Sustenance
- Coupons/Discounts
- Affiliate marketing
- Strategic partnerships
- Organic search
- Search Engine Marketing
- Display ads
Product Performance
- Tracking analytics
- Page views
- Number of searches
- Unique users
- Referral sites
- High demand products (product categories if selling multiple categories)
- Number of successful transactions
- Number of failed transactions
- Failure reasons (dropouts, payment failures)
- Average Transaction size per product category
- Registered users
- Transactions from new users
- Transactions from returning users
- Device-specific trends (PC and non-PC devices)
I found this article which I stumbled upon recently to be very useful for product management in the e-commerce world - http://www.beingpractical.com/2012/03/23/what-has-product-management-got-to-do-with-ecommerce/
Would love to hear your comments/feedback if I have missed out something more.