What to consider when upgrading is the price of online success

Premium tea site SpecialTeas.com went live in 1996; today, the company employs 16 people. Since initially launching without a shopping cart, the site has gradually added functionality, undergone a complete redesign and switched enterprise software systems as the price of continued growth, says founder and president Jeurgen Link.

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“Changing the enterprise software and the web site is not something that you want to do any more than is necessary,” says Link, whose site now runs on Ecometry’s platform. “You make the financial calculation of how much it costs to add more people to do certain things manually versus how much does it cost to upgrade. Over a period of several months, you come to the point of saying, it’s time now.”

Link measures the benefits of upgrading in the fact that the site’s front and back ends are now integrated, affording increased operational efficiency. The most obvious aspect was in the labor savings, and not having to physically touch each order, says Link, noting that previously, SpecialTeas had to manually re-enter orders received on the web site into its enterprise software. The integration also has eliminated out-of-stock sales to customers, reduced the turnaround time on orders by about 50%, decreased order entry errors and improved the site’s ability to cross sell and target customer offers.

But all of that isn’t necessarily easy to implement, something for small retailers to consider when mapping their first major upgrade, Link notes. “My advice is to do your homework thoroughly, including what the impact of switching is going to be on your daily operations,” he says. “Know that your cost is probably going to be underestimated when you are doing your calculation. And time your switch very carefully.” In retrospect, after switching enterprise software in September, Link says fall wasn’t the ideal time for major changes. “If we did it over, we’d insist on making the switch in May or June, just because it’s a slower time for us,” he adds.