How to Choose Product Assortment for E-Commerce
Once you decide that your company needs an ecommerce presence and choose an appropriate ecommerce platform, the next question is usually, "What should we sell online?" Most organizations choose one of the three following options when deciding what to sell online.
Everything. The first and most natural answer is to sell all of your products online. For some organizations, this can be an effective strategy. (Amazon.com, anyone?) For others, selling everything online comes with some challenges that must be overcome to sell that item through ecommerce. For example, pet stores that sell fish tanks and all of the gear neccessary for setting up an aquarium to consumers would have some details to consider before they could sell gold fish online. Likewise, a law enforcement and military supply company that sells direct to the consumer as well as to organizations would need to consider how to verify who can purchase the weapons they sell.
The most popular items. For some organizations, the ecommerce strategy that makes the most sense is to sell only the most popular items online to ensure that they are available to a wide range of people in a variety of locations.
The unpopular items. Not interested in stocking the slow-moving SKUs at every one of your distributor locations? Make those unpopular items available for purchase online instead and save the hassle of stocking low demand products. Keep in mind that if you want your ecommerce site to be more than a dusty back room for those less than exciting products, you should include a selection of your most popular products as well.
The easy-to-ship items. If your company sells construction equipment ranging from hand tools to back hoes, you may choose to sell the smaller, more easily shippable items online and keep the larger construction equipment--the back hoes--off line. Likewise, if special shipping is required for chemicals you ship, you might choose to keep those items off of your ecommerce site until the shipping details can be arranged.
Choosing what items to sell on your ecommerce site can be challenging, depending on your product mix. A little forethought before launching the site will ensure that the best possible product mix is available for online purchases. How did you decide on your ecommerce product assortment?
To learn more about maximizing the success of your ecommerce site, download the white paper, B2B Ecommerce Success - Seven Questions to Consider When Beginning an Ecommerce Initiative.
