Hi there,
A client of me asked to do an audit for his ecommerce business idea. Basicly the client is a book distributor who didn't do anything with ecommerce till today. He is working together with many big supermarkets. The problem is, it's impossible to have all different titles in all those supermarkets. That's why he wants to provide every supermarket with a custom branded ecommerce site where customers can order the books online.
He doesn't want to invest in his own ecommerce infrastructure (webshop, logistics,...) but is looking to work together with an external partner who has his own ecommerce infrastructure and has to provide all custom branded subwebsites.
So I have to audit the idea and the ecommerce partner (no financial audit). What are the questions to ask/research to get a fair idea whether or not this idea could work? What questions do I have to ask to ecommerce partner to see if this is the right partner?
Any advice, start templates are welcome!
Thanks a lot!
This is a fairly substantial piece of work to do it right ... are you sure you can take this on?
That is indeed the question I am asking myself now. Never done this before, for everything a first time but this might be too high level to do it without any experience in auditing. I want to know all steps involved to make a final decision. But right now it indeed feels I should stay clear of this...
Basically this is a consulting offering called vendor management and technology sourcing. Indeed, if you Google the terms vendor management technology sourcing you will see what companies like E&Y, Accenture or PwC would be offering to their clients under such a service offering.
If you have never done this before, I would really suggest that you do not take this on, or only do so if you let your client know clearly and upfront that you too will be learning "on the job".
Thanks for your advice Cmdeal. I think I will focus my energy on am instead of focussing on projects not realated to my core business.