So we've done 'Brilliant Basics', now what's next?

Congratulations. You've successfully cajoled your marketing colleagues into owning 'digital packaging' in the same way that they do for the physical stuff. You've also finally extracted a list of online search terms. Someone's even agreed to own loading images onto Brandbank (& Amazon? erm), and you've bagsied some online media with your key customers.

d-commerce job done, right? Yey!

Not quite. I think it's fair to say that you've made a good start.

Quick checklist:

1) Product images: high quality; different angles and pack configurations; up to date.

Tick.

2) Some delicious Hero flavoured icing slathered on top.

Q: But you can't expect me to change my primary pack shot to pull out something shoppers might actually care about? That's not 'on brand'! A: Really? even though it's not even 1cm high?

Slap. Ouch. Ok. Tick.

3) Nomenclature is accurate and shopper friendly.

Q: Who owns New Line Forms again? A: Isn't that digital packaging?

Please don't hit me again. Ok. Tick.

4) Audit plan in place: throw money at a third party or do it yourself.

Tick.

You have now achieved Brilliant Basics! Congratulations indeed.

{or add suitable code <here> to return to top of article and start again}.

So what's next?

1) If you've got the inclination and a bit of budget, then it could be a good time to benchmark your performance & capabilities against your peers.

I'm not talking about an uber costly, big-name-consultant-nice-c-suite-pleasing-strategic-thingy-but-a-bit-divorced-from-the-day-to-day type job here; just something a bit more quick and dirty. Yes please.

And could you actually link that to business outcomes? Now you're being interesting...

2) Draw up a strategy for the entire d-commerce landscape, not just Amazon.

(see previous blog if not sure).

3) Be very clear on what success looks like and tootle off on the implementation programme.

(and make absolutely sure that you deliver some quick wins along the way).

4) Have some answers ready for these questions, because as sure as eggs is eggs you're gonna get asked them:

How much of the online channel growth is actually incremental? ie not organic or cannibalised from in store.What operating model should we use?What should we track? Easier for sales, less easy for brand.What capabilities do we need in our organisation?What is the best data strategy?What's the best governance process and how do we manage the cross business interfaces?

ok in danger of starting to sound a bit dull now. Sorry! digital can't be the best thing you've ever done all the time. So:

What's omnichannel again?Which port does that monitor need to be on for my laptop to work through it? etc

At daedal we answer these questions (and quite a few more) quite a lot, so if you'd like a bit of a chat then please do get in touch.

And we promise not to slap anyone. Well...