3 Tips for Structuring Your E-Commerce Business

‘Fast is the New Big’
Big data is yesterday, Trent declared; speed is what matters today. To get his point across, Trent introduced "The Buffalo Theory." If you're not familiar with buffalo, a herd of them can only move at the pace of the slowest buffalo. You never want to be the slowest buffalo in your organization, halting progress on an initiative.

The buffalo theory needs to be taken into consideration when identifying which people and teams to involve in any project you're working on. For Trent, his rule for including someone on a project is that their contribution must outweigh their overhead (e.g., they can only meet every other Wednesday at 3 p.m.). You need to be able to offer value in excess of your overhead to be a stakeholder.

Good people want autonomy, mastery and purpose, Trent said, citing a line from Daniel Pink's book "Drive." Here are some other points to consider when determining key stakeholders in any e-commerce project:

• Are they part of the annual budget process?
• Are they active participants in the "we need to make our numbers meeting"? Keep score of meeting notes, Trent advised.
• Do they have "skin" in the game?

Once your structure and team is complete, you can begin working on offering the ultimate brand experience — i.e., satisfying your customers through purchase. Remember, the goal is to get them to buy something from you, Trent said.