ROI advice from an award winner: Be picky on Web features

Return-on-investment analysis gets easier once an organization's initial e-commerce site is up. However, it also gets more specific, says Larry Blazevich, vice president and CIO at Sigma-Aldrich, a St. Louis manufacturer of research and specialty chemicals and last year's recipient of Network World's E-comm Innovator of the Year Award. "First, you need the searching, finding, ordering, shipping and tracking capabilities, just to be competitive. Beyond that, however, each new feature and initiative should be closely monitored in terms of ROI."

For instance, Sigma-Aldrich passed on adding a feature that would have let customers change orders before shipping. Although popular on many e-commerce sites, the feature didn't add enough value to be worth developing and supporting. "Our shipping documents are created about 15 minutes after the order is placed, and that doesn't leave you with a lot of time to change your mind," he says.

Blazevich also says the feature doesn't gel with his market. "When you order chemicals for research, you usually know exactly what you want," he says. "It's not exactly a spontaneous buy."

Not all products should be sold over the Web either, Blazevich advises. Despite some customer requests, Sigma-Aldrich does not sell its chemistry books online because buyers are primarily students placing one-time orders. The time involved in creating and supporting those sales "wouldn't be worth the return. For now, we're concentrating on our repeat customers," he says.

Toward that end, Sigma-Aldrich is integrating its site with marketplace software. "We're spending a lot of time with Ariba, Commerce One and mySAP.com right now, doing the punch out in XML," Blazevich says. "That's certainly far more important and is a higher volume for us than one-time orders. Each organization has to pick and choose what makes sense for its business."

Cummings is a freelance writer in North Andover, Mass. She can be reached at jocummings@mediaone.net.