Intershop Blog
Your hotspot for market and technology trends in B2B e-commerce
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

If you, as a B2B organization, want to achieve serious results with e-commerce, then you need to set up a team on it. How do you put that team together?

New call-to-action

Start from scratch

The Stiho Group understood their need for a digital transformation, but not all organizations rate this equally important. Eric Croon (Zamro): "At the time there was already a web shop at ERIKS, so the necessity wasn't seen. The culture was also one that existing procedures and processes were adhered to. Understandable, considering that they work with complex products that are often accompanied by risk aversion, so that they can serve their customers as well as possible. Croon then created a large account with the small entrepreneur and together with a Zamro partner, established a large company that was able to create opportunities in the market for the small ones. “We started from scratch with an e-commerce organization, where a few things stood out: employees must have a digital mindset, be enterprising and daring. We say: If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough.”

What you need to think about before recruiting an e-commerce team

  1. Reflect what is happening in the market and translate that into opportunities for the organization.
  2. Embrace the digitization not as a project, but as an ongoing process.
  3. If digital shall succeed, then the right mindset and culture are crucial.
  4. Ask for a commitment over three years so that you don't have to pitch every year.
  5. Find out what distinguishes your organization from the rest and seize this as an opportunity.
  6. If you don't do anything with data yet, start with it tomorrow. Your customers talk to you through their behavior. Find out what they want.
  7. Make or buy? What makes you unique is what keeps you at home. What commodity is, outsource!
  8. Consider a serious budget. Setting up e-commerce is not cheap.
  9. Develop a vision and know where you want to go.
 

To decision to strive into e-commerce needs a strong team that works dedicated to digital commerce on a daily basis. Three growth phases can be distinguished for an organization starting e-commerce: "Start, Grow and Optimize". The experts agree that there is a lot of outsourcing in the start-up phase. If the organization continues to grow a little bit further, more and more knowledge is brought in-house. The composition of the e-commerce team will also be changing over time: the more mature the e-commerce, the more specific the roles of the team members. The team is more and more made up of experts and less of all-rounders.

Intershop expert panel banner

8 tips for putting together the perfect e-commerce team

  1. Think in terms of competencies and not just in functions. One person can fulfil several roles.
  2. Don't rely solely on knowledge. Soft skills and a good team composition make the difference.
  3. Culture is key. You need an enterprising team that dares to make mistakes and has fun with each other.
  4. The role of the Product Owner is crucial. He or she has knowledge of the business and listens to the core team. This person must be able to manage and collaborate well.
  5. Decide carefully which role you will play in your team. Will you be a part in your core e-commerce team, the internal organization, or team up with a partner? This assignment changes as your digital commerce becomes more mature.
  6. Check whether you have the necessary innovative power. If not, hire in capacity, balanced against your time to market and budget.
  7. Immediately from the beginning, involve a (junior) developer. He or she has the technical knowledge you need to build upon further ideas. If you are late to participate yourself or rely heavily on an external party, it will be becoming increasingly difficult to acquire that knowledge in-house. In short: keep the technical gap small.
  8. Maintain knowledge about the digitization concept, especially internally. Involve partners in new technologies, inspiration and new (business) concepts. Hire partners to be able to breathe with. This creates hybrid teams.

The Expert Group B2B digital commerce comes together on LinkedIn to discuss the most important findings, learnings, tips and tricks:

New call-to-action