“Lean Startup” model is an approach for launching businesses, products and ideas that rely on validated learning, scientific experimentation, and iterative product releases to shorten product development cycles, measure progress, and gain valuable customer feedback.
Going live with “Minimum viable product” would be the first step in the process. Your offline retail model took years to built, so cannot be made online immediately, therefore, understanding what is possible within few months is very important. It is to test fundamental business hypotheses (or leap-of-faith assumptions) and begin the learning process as quickly as possible. Best way to find out what it is, is to have competitive analysis done on your business and then coming out with minimum features necessary for existing customers. For example, we may want features only which our existing customers are willing to use online.
Installing Google Analytics would give clear understanding of what features are being used and where the customers are coming from and going to. Conducting customer surveys and mapping usage to the sales funnel will give where the exit points are will lead to the next version of the product. “Continuous deployment” results in a reduction of website and business development cycle times.
To start off your online journey there are popular content management systems like “WordPress” and “Magento” and they have many website features
Companies, especially startups, can design their products or services to meet the demands of their customer base without requiring large amounts of initial funding or expensive product launches.
If you do have bigger technology investments to make, here is a good article on “How much ecommerce startups should invest in technology?”
Ofcourse, we are always there to help you go online.
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