The frog and scorpion passing the river story, is one of the great examples of the adverse of wisdom. They both wanted to cross to the other side, yet one was not ready to change for the mission to succeed. Not because the scorpion was suicidal but because he underestimated how difficult it is to change his behavior.

Today digital sales topic is a hot topic in any business discussion among business people. People want to grow and want to utilize this shift in consumer behavior to buy online. The easiest thing to think of is what technology should we buy to endorse this new shift. an investment in buying ecommece technology and tools is becoming democratized and costs are not as high as they used to be. So access to new digital sales technology is not an issues. There different models and offers. You can buy a fully licensed ecommerce technology (apps and a website for example) or subscribe to a software as a service offering (like Shopify and others). Rest assured this is enough to get you sales online, yet this technology doesn’t operate itself. It needs to be operated.

To operate well an online store needs the following:

• Digital marketing plans.
• Digital ads budget plans.
• Digital customer service plans.
• Digital sales plans.
• Data analysis and reporting.
• Ecommerce merchandising management
• Ecommerce technology management (if you buy owned license)

All the requirements above need staff to manage them either your own employees. This is where a business owner or a decision maker falls short in their thinking. So the full picture is an online store and a team to market it, maintain it, drive its sales growth and enhance it. So investing in digital sales channels need a thoughtful planning and studying. Why a traditional mindset can not comprehend that? A problem- solution instinct usually kicks in here, and makes things tougher for people who try to make change. A typical problem would be, we have a big threat, our sales are plummeting and everyone is saying digital is the way to go. Let’s invest in tools. They would enable our digital sales and customers to exchange with us online. Yet the gap is to understand how customers want to exchange then build your way up. This needs hiring people, defining objectives and defining plans to win. It is not magic and won’t happen fast. Clarity of our communication internally and externally will make a big difference and build confidence. Commitment to goals set in our transformation plans and targets makes us better every day. This is what it takes to change the way you think and do business. One step at a time, and follow a well drawn roadmap for this transformation.