E-Commerce Profitability: Online Merchandising Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
(Microsoft Training Course: 4010) - 0.5 day - £600 exc VAT

The goal of this course is to introduce best practices that will enable the students to improve sales, lower costs, and build better customer relationships. It is designed for managers, marketers, and entrepreneurs, particularly in small-size to mid-size businesses, who have a vested interest in achieving and improving sustainable profitability.

1. Identifying Company Goals and Customer Goals
2. Presenting the E-Commerce Product Mix
3. Creating Product Pages That Sell
4. Focusing on Revenue-Producing Results

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Module 1: Identifying Company Goals and Customer Goals

• The Online Merchandising Challenge
• What Are Goals, Tasks, and Features?
• Discussion: E-Commerce Goals-Two Points of View
• Demonstration: Correlating Goals and Tasks
• Exercise: Identifying Correlations for an E-Commerce Site
• Discussion: Basing Decisions on Specified Goals

Skills

• Understand how specifying goals can translate to return on investment.
  
• Distinguish among goals, tasks, and features.
  
• Identify specific company goals for an e-commerce Web site and the goals a customer has in visiting the site.
  
• Chart correlations between company goals and customer goals, and then identify tasks a customer would have to accomplish at the site for both sets of goals to be accomplished.
  
• Know how to use specified goals and tasks as the basis for making decisions about features to include on your Web site.
  

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Module 2: Presenting the E-Commerce Product Mix

• Planning from the Ground Up
• Putting the Goods Out in the Open
• Exercise: Creating Store “Aisles”
• Discussion: How Will Customers Achieve Tasks?
• Demonstration: Labeling and Creating Pages

Skills

• Understand why and how an e-commerce site is more effective when it is structured like a store.
  
• Organize an e-commerce site’s structure to address both the company’s goals and the goals a customer has when visiting the site.
  
• Create site navigation to present a product mix that attracts business.
  
• Apply best-practice guidelines to organizing your e-commerce Web site.
  

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Module 3: Creating Product Pages That Sell

• Giving Customers What They Want
• Templates Benefit Everyone
• Discussion: Information That Enables Purchase Decisions
• Giving Customers More of What They Want
• Demonstration: Viewing a Page Template
• Exercise 1: Creating a Product Page Template
• Exercise 2: Maximizing Sales Opportunities
• Discussion: Looking at Possible Solutions

Skills

• Identify content areas on a page and assign priorities based on company goals and customer goals.
  
• Lay out product pages that give the customer the information needed to lead directly to a purchase decision.
  
• Create and use opportunities for selling related products, selling higher-priced products or bundled products, and offering support for the sale of the product.
  
• Understand how to use page templates to increase revenue, improve the customer experience, and reduce maintenance costs.
  

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Module 4: Focusing on Revenue-Producing Results

• Methods of Measuring E-Commerce Success
• Exercise 1: Measuring Traffic with FrontPage
• Exercise 2: Calculating the Conversion Rate
• Visit Value and Feature Investment Breakeven
• Basing Modifications on Business Value
• Discussion: E-commerce in the Real World

Skills

• Analyze traffic and sales data to improve the customer experience and focus on revenue-producing results.
  
• Measure success more accurately based on company goals and customer goals.
  
• Evolve an e-commerce site by making appropriate modifications based on set goals and appropriate measures of success.
  

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Before attending this course, students must have the following pre-requisites:

• Experience as a business professional charged with building or maintaining an e-commerce Web site that sells products.
• Working familiarity with FrontPage and other Microsoft Office applications.
• Experience in FrontPage creating a basic Web site.
• Experience in Word creating documents and experience in Excel creating formulas.
• An awareness of the distinction between an e-commerce site’s front end (the interface) and back end (the database and transaction system).

After completing the course, students will be able to identify correlations between both a company’s goals and the goals of a customer; organize the site’s navigation to present a product mix addressing both goals; lay out product pages that lead directly to a purchase decision; plan and prioritize content areas on product pages to boost sales by offering appropriate cross-selling (selling related items), upselling (selling higher-priced items), and product support; analyze traffic and sales data and synthesize to improve the customer experience and focus on revenue-producing results.