Change Management in Magento, or any other E-Commerce platform, is not limited to being people-centric but needs to be propagated at a macro level across the entire business operations. It’s not limited to end-user training but requires a custom process to align with business goals.
If you have just started with Magento, it’s essential that you embrace change, well before it immerses you.
A quote by Lisa Bodell, a change management expert and founder of FutureThink is an apt example of having an effective technology adoption strategy.
Change cannot be put on people. The best way to instill change is to do it with them. Create it with them.
The quote drives the fact that change management should not be a one-sided exercise but requires active communication and collaboration across the entire business.
We will look at best practices for effective change management in Magento for new E-Commerce websites. They can help strategize a vision and a roadmap for adopting change, ensuring current sustenance and future growth.
The shift is radical and dynamic for businesses that have just started with Magento. There are various changes that must be made during the journey from being a Retailer to an E-tailer. Magento Change Management strategies can fail, if they are poorly planned, improperly led, and lack a direction in propagating the change.
Magento Change Management for New E-Commerce websites
The first aspect to effective change management is a definite vision to make the leap. Selling from a physical store is quite different from selling online, owing to multiple factors involved in the process. We shall look at a few best practices to help you get started- right from the development phase.
One common cause of failures in change management is that businesses start the exercise at the end stage. It is important that change management needs to be included in all the phases of the Magento development lifecycle to ensure that all key aspects get covered in the process.
Building a Development Strategy
Having a well-defined Magento development strategy can make the change management journey simpler. You need to factor in the various changes in your selling model and be ready for numerous transformations that you will face.
For example, Magento websites require deep technical expertise to build but can be managed easily from the back-end. If you have the required skills in your in-house team-you get a big advantage in using Magento. It’s highly recommended that you have the right team, with the right skills to develop a Magento website, which an external agency can otherwise do. Top factors that you need to research before choosing a Magento development agency are outlined below.
Experience
Does the agency have the required expertise for your custom needs? You can also choose a Magento-certified agency that will give you the best development services. Do also factor in their previous experience, from previous projects that they have worked on.
Support and Maintenance
Support and Maintenance is critical for effective change management. This factors the various customizations that are required for your website, along with future requirements that can be easily taken care of. For example, if your business requirements need a feature enhancement, you will need to integrate a Magento extension that suits the purpose and ensure that your team is trained to adapt to the change.
Training
Training your team to operate the Magento back-end platform is the basic requirement for selling online. The change from handling sales in a physical store, when compared to operating an E-Commerce website is completely different and requires the right training strategy. You also need to consider the fact that some of your employees might not have the required application management skills; and would not be able to adapt to the change and need to be deployed to other tasks.
Top factors for efficient Change Management with Magento
Changes in the Procurement model
When compared to physical stores, Magento E-Commerce websites need to adapt to dynamic changes in the market. It’s necessary to have a sufficient inventory level so that customers do not see an out-of-stock message and move to a different online store. Also, if you are selling on established marketplaces such as Amazon, you need to factor in the need to meet the demand across various channels.
Changes in the Supply Chain activities
Selling online requires a host of changes in supply chain activities. You need to have a proper order management process, multiple shipping options, and a reliable logistics system for fulfilment.
Adapting to Demand spikes
Demand spikes occur during the holiday season, and other seasonal instances such as Cyber Monday, calling for better inventory management with demand forecasting processes.
Regulatory Compliance
If your selling model is across various countries, you need to ensure that your products and shipping methods comply with regulatory norms that are specific to the location.
How can Exinent help?
If you are interested to start selling online, we at Exinent are here to help. We have been into E-Commerce development and support services for the past decade and have hundreds of clients who have taken advantage of our custom E-Commerce website development services. We focus on creating online success stories with a robust, secure, scalable, and customized online shopping platform that would help you get customers across various online channels to your store. Feel free to Contact Us; now is the time for your business to get online and noticed!
