E-commerce Business Plan
If you’re starting an E-commerce Business, it’s very
important to write a business plan as quickly as possible. A proper E-commerce
Business Plan helps you showcase the things you are aiming for, all while
giving some guidance in regards to the future. A dependable business plan can
actually bring in potential investors, and that on its own can make a huge
difference. Here you have a quick outline of the things you need to include in
your business plan.
Executive summary
The executive summary is pivotal for the E-commerce Business Plan
because you can showcase financial highlights, success factors and a business
overview. For the latter you want to add products and services, the management
team and how you focus on offering customers the right value.
Business overview
In this section you will need to talk about what the company
offers, its history, the products that you want to sell and so on. This is also
the right time to talk about website design, the type of design that works for
your E-commerce store and if you have multiple ideas.
Comprehensive analysis
This section can have 3 sub-sections. In the first one, you
can focus on industry statistics and trends. Then you can perform a competitive
analysis for direct and indirect competitors, all while showcasing the
competitive advantage that you have. Lastly, you have the customer analysis
which will focus on customer segmentation and the creation of a demographic
profile.
Talking about the website and technology used
If you’re bringing in an innovative E-commerce system or if
you’re implementing new technologies, then it’s important add this section and
showcase everything.
Marketing plan
In regards to the marketing plan, you will need to showcase
all the possible promotional strategies. That includes PR, incentives, print
advertising, strategic alliances, affiliate programs, PPC, SEO, email marketing
or a specific pricing strategy. You also need to think about marketing budgets,
which one of the promotional strategies listed you will be using and how you
can expand on this in the future.
Operations plan
Your E-commerce Business Plan needs to have an operations
plan where you show exactly what your business needs to focus on. You can talk
here about service and website functions, and you can also cover the
administrative functions. Having the right milestones can make a huge
difference in the eyes of potential investors.
Management team
It’s important to create a list with the management team
members and also showcase a hiring plan. Do you need many employees? What
expertise do you expect from them? The more information you have, the better.
Financial plan
Lastly, it’s imperative to have a proper financial plan.
This is where investors will mostly look and see if your business is worth
investing in or not. The financial plan needs to include revenue and cost
drivers, what capital you need and how you want to use it, as well as forecasts
and assumptions. Normally you also want to have a 5-year projection for the
cash flow statement, balance sheet or income statement.
Conclusion
Establishing the right E-commerce Business Plan is not going
to be an easy task. However, this structure will make it easy for you to write
a comprehensive, engaging and powerful E-commerce Business Plan that will help
you grab attention from investors. Plus, you can take this plan as a guideline
for your company’s future, as you focus on fulfilling all those goals and projections!
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