Establishing the starting budget can be a challenging task. There are competing priorities, ROI to consider, total cost of ownership may be in question, or you may have to request funds from the board. Oftentimes, it’s a mixture of more than one of these components. You want to get the biggest bang for your buck—and you don’t want to pay for an overpriced project.
When calculating total cost of ownership, there are internal and external resources to consider: platform costs; hidden costs, such as taxes and shipping; and impacts to other business processes/systems that will require updating to accommodate the ecommerce experience. A lack of commitment to a solid budget and plan can contribute to a failed project, either by way of spending too much for a non-defined solution or by not having the allocated capital to align to expectations.
It’s helpful to know what is essential and what isn’t within your budget. Build out your intended list of feature sets to establish a budget range.
Once the features have been identified, delineate between the “must haves” and the “nice-to-haves.” If a level of effort can be assigned to each, assign the level of effort (high, medium, or low). Then, evaluate each feature for business impact (high, medium, or low).
Now you’re ready to prioritize the features by impact to business and the level of effort. This helps to maximize every dollar that your organization has available and communicate what is important to each of your users.