Budgeting for Website Product Management

by Howard Morrison (Unlicensed)

Sep 17, 2018

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In our last blog, we explored the importance of robust Website Product Management for successful wine and spirit eCommerce sites. When budgeting for Website Product Management, there are several components for a merchant to consider. In most cases, merchants must choose how and where to invest in product management. A good understanding of the basic information gathering processes and their cost structures can be the difference between a profitable eCommerce site and one that fails to live up to expectation.

Studies Show: It takes the average employee 15 minutes to properly complete one product.

Below is a review of things to consider as you budget, along with an estimated cost per product outline.

Primary Budget Components

1. Money for an eCommerce platform that is capable of displaying product information in a compelling way on your website

2. Time to gather detailed information from Producer / Importer sites, publication sites (Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast), and provide product categorization.

3. Employee cost per hour

Secondary Cost Considerations

1. Providing and maintaining a computer with an internet connection

2. Having an employee with the skill set required to be efficient at finding information and adjusting images to remove backgrounds

3. Subscription fees to critic review publications of interest

4. Developing a system to review work online for accuracy

Cost Per Product Outline

The following outline enables you to estimate your timelines and costs to perform Product Management.

• Begin by tracking how many products a person completes in an hour. As an average, studies have shown that you can expect a rate of one product per 15 minutes or 4 products per hour.

• Next, decide how much to pay your employee per hour. An average rate for a qualified person is $15.00 hour. At 4 products an hour, that equates to a cost of $3.75 per product for just the research and uploading of data and images.

• Next, insert the number of products your employee will be working on.  If you are just getting started with your website, this could hundreds or thousands of products.

• Ongoing, you can expect changes each month.  These can be new products or replacements for products that sold out, such as wines with vintages.  An average to use is 5% of your total online product count.

Understanding the cost of proper product management is an often overlooked but important factor when considering the options for an eCommerce website. Typically, the rewards far outweigh the costs associated with properly performing Product Management.  Your website is more profitable, customers are happier, which ends up complimenting your brick & mortar store.

Want to take the headache out of product management? Learn more about how Bottlenose can handle your ongoing product management needs.