Performance - more than a blazing fast site

by Mr Per Olsson 10. January 2009 10:17

What is performance, really? Is it just handling a request of texts, images, scripts, media in less than a second? Well, yes

But it is more than that, if you got a blog, newspaper or a community you only (in most cases) handle information of different kind.

But if you have somekind of online commerce there is more to it than just handling information (ask LetsBuyIt for example about the christmas trees they sold a couple of years ago), its somekind of physical things in most cases (which I will cover here, human capital nor economical instruments will be covered)
When trading there is a couple of questions that needs to be solved:

do I need my own warehouse or will this be solved by a 3PL partner?
it could be good to have your own warehouse in the beginning, and it do not need to be a 10000 sqm big warehouse. Startup small and when your up and running with positive economy you can start thinking about a bigger warehouse or outsourcing to a 3PL.
This of course depends on if you actually want your own warehouse or if you will let all parcels be shipped directly from supplier to your customer.
The positive thing to have at least a buffer warehouse where things you sell a lot of is placed is that delivery times could be shorter and if you send everything from your warehouse your customer wont be confused about sender of parcels and you have the possibility to repack everything in your boxes where you can put logos (even though suppliers of products often offer this today)
The positive thing to shipping directly from supplier to customer is freight cost, it could be lower, and all physica riscs taken is between your supplier and your customer (depending of the contract)
what deliverytimes do I want to promise customers and how will this be solved?
If you put a delivery time on your site, delivery on that time. It could take time for you to get the products, check it, pack it and sending it out to the customer.
A ground rule is that the more expensive the product is, the longer delivery time is ok to offer.
how will I handle returns?
Tough question, important to remember is that customer often expect free return freight and they expect to be able to open up parcels and looking at the product before deciding if the return it. Stick to the laws in the country you trade in
what way of delivery options do I want to offer my customers?
do you deliver your self as a service?
is it the cheapest ways you want to use or the best ways? Its a matter of costs sometime, so try both as long as the companies you use to delivery your parcels gives the service that you and your customer expect (often related to the product you sell and your customers)
what kind of guarantees will I offer my customers on the products they buy?
Some companies gives guarantees mandatory by laws and some companies gives longer guarantees. Of course it is better with longer guarantees, but it comes with a cost and somewhere this cost must be calculated in the price your customer pay.

The least but most important question in this post is:
Will (and should in some cases) I handle customers/suppliers from several countries?
It could be fun tou trade in more than your own country, but remember that laws, language (surprise, surprise), culture, expectations are different

Startup small, learn new products, countries and cultures in your trading journey and grow with the flow.