Editor’s Note: This is the inaugural edition of “Ask an Expert,” a new Practical eCommerce feature in which ecommerce merchants submit a question to be answered by a fellow merchant or an industry colleague. Our goal with “Ask an Expert” is to allow you to tap into the collective knowledge of veterans in the ecommerce space.
If you have a question you’d like to submit, email Kevin Patrick Allen, contributing editor, at kevin@practicalecommerce.com and we’ll attempt to address it.
Today’s featured question comes from Jill Exler. Exler is the founder and CEO of Jexbo.com, an ecommerce site for authors to sell their self-published books.
Our featured expert is Ken Kikkawa. Kikkawa is an ecommerce veteran and CEO of eHobbies.com, which was founded in 1999. eHobbies is a leader in the field of hobby and toy retailing. Kikkawa also writes “The (eCommerce) Corner Office” blog at Practical eCommerce.
Jill Exler: “What’s the best way to manage the technology side of the business if you don’t know a lot about technology and you rely on outside developers to manage it for you?”
Ken Kikkawa: “That’s a great question since I don’t consider myself a technology expert either. However, over the years I have learned enough to be able to ‘speak’ it and, more importantly, to be able to distinguish which developers have the potential to work with us.
“I was able to accomplish this by relying on a merchant network of people that I know and trust who have worked with new developers. I usually work with a developer only if they have worked with someone that I know.
“In the case where I am bringing them in on my own, I always ask for multiple referrals. The referrals should be other merchants similar to you in size, experience and at your level of technology. This is a great way to meet other merchants also. If you have a potential developer that has not worked with anyone of your size and experience then it may be a red flag to use another developer instead.
“Also, remember the bottom line: You are the customer in this transaction, and the developers you work with need to speak your language instead of you adapting to theirs. Tell them what you want to accomplish as if you are a customer of your business. Let them figure out how to make it work in a way that makes sense to you.”