One of the summer’s biggest films and the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park series, Jurassic World is an exciting movie from start to finish. There are moments of nostalgia and awe, because who doesn’t love a good dinosaur movie? Jurassic World is a fully functioning dinosaur theme park but with the addition of a genetically-modified dinosaur running rampant, chaos ensues.
Like we did with the Lego Movie in this blog post, we were able to draw some eCommerce lessons from this movie that you can apply. Spoilers below, obviously.
Numbers are important, but so are intangible factors like customer happiness.
There is a moment where Claire, the park’s operation manager, is discussing how Jurassic World is doing with owner, Mr. Masrani. While Claire is focused on numbers such as park attendance and revenue, all he cares about is how his guests feel, if they are happy and enjoying themselves, and if they are sufficiently awed and amazed by dinosaurs they can see and touch.
When operating a webshop, numbers are just a part of the game. Google Analytics integrated to your webshop will monitor site activities and allow you to pull data reports at any time to understand what are the top sellers, where are customers coming from, and more. It’s harder to measure customer perception and how they feel about the brand, look, feel, and overall experience. These intangibles are important to understand, however, because a successful eCommerce website is dependent on all those factors. Some actions you can take to help manage these intangible factors are ensuring your store is well organized and streamlined, customer paths are well thought out, and seamless integration to NAV supports every action.
Testing is important and back up plans are required.
Dinosaurs are dangerous (obviously). In Jurassic World, there was constant testing of the cages for vulnerabilities, reviewing procedures in case of emergency, and consulting with experts. Back up plans are a must as they protect the guests, park, assets, and more.
While eCommerce is no dinosaur theme park, there are opportunities for things to go wrong. Orders can be lost, a feature doesn’t work properly, content is wrong or outdated, inaccurate pricing and availability, security threats; these are just a handful of the things that could go wrong. Business contingency plans have to be set in place, with set protocols and an action plan to get everything back up and running. A plan to succeed always allows for failure.
Testing allows eCommerce sites to operate at the highest level of efficiency. Testing can include content and formatting changes, adding or removing links, new ad campaigns, and more; monitor and document any issues and make changes accordingly. Having an integrated eCommerce solution like Nav-to-Net™ will help mitigate a lot of problems, especially with testing environments, support and maintenance programs, and a team of experts on your side.
Catering to customers is crucial but do not lose sight of what it is you do.
Jurassic World is all about creating a thrilling and one of a kind experience for customers. Claire states that in coming up with new attractions for the park, focus groups wanted bigger and scarier, with more teeth. This, of course, ends not so great with the genetically-modified dinosaur spreading fear and terror. It seems as if they only listened to the surface of the results without fully understanding the dire consequences and the extent of what they have created. As Owen the velociraptor trainer says, “They’re dinosaurs. They’re “wow” enough.”
In eCommerce, listening to customer feedback is part of the job. It’s also the reason why so many businesses exist; they want to provide what customers need and want. Customers, however, are varied. When catering to your customers, make sure they are, in fact, your target audience. There will always be those customers who want more, sometimes more than you offer. When taking customer feedback and market research into consideration, do not lose sight of what it is that makes you unique and what you’re really good at.
Nav-to-Net™ can help businesses focus. Take the features you need and customize them to suit your unique business processes. It functions as a natural eCommerce extension of your business, allowing you to do more with what you already have in place.
As much as you plan, you cannot control everything. Things can change quickly.
One of the biggest takeaways is that even with the best intentions and plans in place, the situation can quickly go awry. Jurassic World tried to make things bigger, better, and scarier with more teeth and “cooler” dinosaurs, neglecting that dinosaurs even existing in the present day are amazing all on their own. They had all the technology at their fingertips but the new dinosaur behaved in ways they did not expect and were unprepared to deal with. But they had a good team that was resourceful and determined and gathered additional support (hello T-Rex) when needed.
eCommerce can be fast-paced to keep up with technology and the changing business landscape. Having a solid foundation for your webshop and seamless integration to NAV will help immensely in preparing for the future. Nav-to-Net’s robust architecture can withstand multiple customizations to front and back end and is scalable to adapt to growth. Continue to be resourceful and think creatively. The DVP team is also more than happy to back you up and provide innovative solutions.
If you’re interested in learning more about our NAV webshop solution, request a live demo and we’d be happy to answer any questions you may have about NAV and eCommerce.
