Demand Specification

The power of Demand Specifications

If you consider changing your E-commerce Platform, it is a very good idea to start out by writing a Demand Specification. This will make you qualified to select the platform that best suits your company’s needs both now and in the future.

We help you specify your needs

When writing a Demand Specification, we interview all stakeholders in your organization in order to highlight business critical factors such as:

  • Which Customer Experience would you like to create?
  • Which systems do you need?
  • Which system integrations do you need?
  • How are your workflows?
  • Which markets do you plan to scale into
  • Etc.

Avoid the E-commerce Platform Glass Ceiling

With regard to your “Frontstore”—your customer’s shopping experience—it is especially important to investigate which features you need now and 2-5 years ahead in time. Some E-commerce companies risk buying a standardized E-commerce Platform that may well suit their current needs; however, in 2 to 5 years, they will be limited by a feature glass ceiling.

Due too this, they then either have to:

  1. Change into another E-commerce Platform, which is expensive and takes a lot of time away from doing business
  2. Develop a Headless Frontstore on top of their standardized E-commerce Platform.

The E-commerce Platform Glass Ceiling

Avoid the Platform Glass Ceiling by selecting an E-commerce Platform that suits both your current and future needs.

The E-commerce Platform Glass Ceiling

We are thorough

We make sure to describe requirements across all your business and technical aspects. To illustrate this, below please find examples of some of the questions we will ask your organization:

BUSINESS QUESTIONS

These are some of the business related questions we ask your organization:

Audience:

  • Age / gender / geography
  • Profession / job
  • What are the customers’ primary needs and why do they choose you?
  • Which questions does a customer ask before making a purchase decision?
  • 5 examples of typical customers (composition of age, gender, geography and products / needs).

Online sales / personalization / promotions

  • What is the strategy to lift online sales (CRO, increased marketing? etc.).
  • What are your personalization tactics?
  • What does your campaign program look like (per quarter / year)
  • Email Marketing & Marketing Automation
  • How do you work with e-mail marketing?
  • Do you work with 1:1 e-mail marketing?
  • How do you work with Marketing Automation?

Social Media

  • What is your Social Media strategy / tactic?
  • Which channels do you use, and which performers are the best?

Design / brands

  • What is your design strategy?
  • What is your brand strategy?

Online content

  • What is your content strategy?
  • What is your online magazine strategy? (Who reads it, link to purchase goods from Magazine, etc.
  • How do you incorporate Guides & Knowledge?

Customer Club

  • How many members do you have in the Customer Club?
  • How do you work with the Customer Club? (Offers, events, etc.)

Products / buying patterns:

  • Which products are your Bestsellers?
  • What does an order composition typically look like: a) number of products and which products, and b) total order size in DKK?
  • What are the customers’ top 10 questions regarding the purchase of the products (FAQ)
  • How often do customers typically shop with you? (Purchase frequency)
  • How long is a customer with you? (Lifetime value)
  • Who are your main competitors?

Online / offline business strategy / tactics

  • New products?
  • New services? (Click and Collect, Upselling on product pages, Favorites, Guide(s), and collection of product reviews via email).
  • New concepts?
  • New markets?
  • Omnichannel plans (Click and Collect, combine offline / online advice, etc.).

Support / customer service

  • What level are the customers at / which insight do they have into the products?
  • How many of your customers use the support?
  • How do they contact you? (distribution between e-mail / telephone / chat, etc.)
  • Which questions do they ask in your support? (Top 10 questions, or more if possible)

Online Advice / guides

  • Implementation of chat?
  • Book an appointment to speak with an advisor?
  • Do you want functional guides where customers can get help choosing a Padel Bat, etc.?

TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

These are some of the technical questions we ask your organization:

Online order handling, Returns

  • Where does the order go (ERP?) after it has been received in the web shop, and what information about the order must be sent with it?
  • Does the shop have to handle withdrawing payments, or does it occur via ERP or elsewhere?
  • Where are return orders handled? And how is the shop informed? Which system handles return payments to the customer’s card?
  • Which emails about the order should the web shop send to the customer? And which are sent by other systems (e.g., Order confirmation, Information about shipping, returns, etc.)
  • Which payment gateways and payment methods must be supported?
  • What shipping types/forms do you want for a new shop, and is it the ERP or the Web shop that sends the order to these suppliers?

Click & Collect

  • Description of a complete Click & Collect order, from when the order is received until the customer picks it up.
  • Where does the shop obtain the stock status of the individual stores for Click & Collect?

Stock status and goods receipt (registration of new goods in stock, replenishment)

  • How does the stock quantity of an item change today?
  • Which system is the “Single Source Of Truth” over the warehouse?
  • Should we be responsible for warehouse integration, or can the supplier of the current warehouse system do this?

Management of product prices, offers and campaigns

  • Where are prices, offers and campaigns managed today?
  • How do you define which products are part of a campaign?
  • How to define how long a campaign must run?
  • What types of campaigns are there? (possibly save xx percent, does not apply to discounted items, free shipping, etc.).
  • Should there be discount codes from time to time that give additional discounts?
  • How long does it take from when a campaign is created / deleted until it is online in the shop today?
  • How long does it take from a price correction until the price change is online in the shop today?

Newsletter sending and Marketing Automation

  • Which events must be sent from the web shop to the Newsletter & Marketing automation system?
  • Which systems are used today? Should any of them be replaced in connection with the development of a new web shop?

Integration between web shop and financial system

  • If the order is transferred to the ERP, is further financial integration between the web shop and financial system necessary?
  • Do we have to be responsible for the integration that transfers orders from the web shop to ERP, or does the ERP supplier do it?

All further integrations between the web shop and various systems (Analytics, GTM, various scripts, etc.).

  • Which scripts should be used in a new web shop?
  • Which events are sent to Analytics and GTM today, and should they be the same for a new web shop?
  • Should we be responsible for setting up scripts etc. in GTM, or will you handle it yourself? If you are responsible for the setup yourself, you have the option of more advanced setup (postponement of scripts, integration with the Cookie Accept box, etc.)
  • Full list of systems the shop must be integrated with as well as data flows.
  • To which units does the shop send a Click & Collect order?
  • Which rules apply to when Click & Collect can be chosen by a customer?
  • How is the customer informed that their Click & Collect order is ready?
  • Is it the web shop that informs the store about the order, or is it the ERP?

Product creation and translation of product texts – How are products created today?

  • How long does it take from when an item is created until it is online on the web shop?
  • Are there any challenges with product creation today?
  • Which information is created on the individual item?
  • Is additional information required on the individual items when a new shop goes online? (e.g., USPs, properties, etc.)
  • How are translations of descriptions, titles, etc. handled today?
  • How should translations be handled in the future?

The Customer Club

  • How does the Customer Club work today?
  • Which features are available in the Customer Club today?
  • Which system controls the Customer Club?
  • Which systems is Customer Club integrated with?
  • Does the Customer Club work seamlessly across online and offline?
  • Which features should work as they do today, and which should be reconsidered?

Cloudflare and DNS

  • Do you want us to use Cloudflare Pro or Business? (We recommend Business due to WAF + more advanced Cache rules)
  • Can we get full access to DNS when the project starts?

The new Algolia & Raptor implementation

  • Are you planning to use Algolia standard or Premium?
  • Which features do you use from Raptor today, are they the same ones you intend to use in a new shop?
  • Which events do you want us to send to Raptor in a new shop?

High ROI and a focused organization

By writing a Demand Specification before selecting your new E-commerce Platform, you will be qualified at selecting the platform that suits your company’s needs both now and in the future. It is an investment that quickly will create a good ROI and a focused organization, based on a conscious business strategy.

A Demand Specification typically amounts to 150 – 200 pages.

Contact us

Feel free to contact us to learn more about Demand Specifications: