Using the power and flexibility of e-commerce has become quite popular in the retail industry. Companies can save a lot of money by not having physical store locations and taking advantage of online shopping. Customers, on the other hand, can find products faster and get better prices online rather than in physical stores.
Selling products on the Internet requires a lot of planning in order to build an attractive and effective online presence. Businesses need to do research over what products need to be offered, how to display the products on their websites, how to process orders and keep track of the available inventory. In addition, online marketers need to target their customers through sales and marketing campaigns, offer discounts and special offers, analyze web traffic trends as well as provide engaging content for educating their customers and improving SEO and conversion rates.
Strong project management skills are required for achieving the above mentioned objectives. E-commerce projects need to be executed in a systematic and scheduled manner. Milestones need to be tracked. Files have to be shared. The progress and budget availability need to be measured and reported on.
In order to help project managers to manage e-commerce projects effectively, we've put together a list of 5 web based project management tools.
1. Basecamp
(basecamp.com). This project management tool enables businesses to run their projects in a proper and simple manner. At a single centralized location, all schedules, tasks and other information associated with the project is kept in one place. This enables every team member to be on the same page over what's happening with the project at any point in time. The member access to various parts of the project (file upload and sharing, access to specific tasks, etc) can be controlled by setting different access permissions. Basecamp also provides some notable integration with various third party applications, specifically related to invoicing and time tracking.
2. ProofHub
(www.proofhub.com). This project management tool enables improved management over projects, so projects can be systematically executed and delivered on time. This simple and easy to use application facilitates accurate, fast communication and collaboration among globally dispersed team members. Team members can address matters quickly by promptly sharing their views and ideas. The team can conveniently share files and documents. Tasks, milestones and events can be adequately tracked through the calendar feature. The tool also has a time tracking feature and the project progress can be measured through Gantt charts.
3. Trello
(trello.com). With the help of this collaboration tool, businesses can improve the organization of their project management processes. This solution boosts the communication and collaboration among group members due to a proper distribution of tasks among members. The tasks can be better managed, executed and tracked. Members get informed via email notifications about activities that take place within the project scope. The project tasks can be well organized through cards and virtual task board (similar to an Agile board) that can have different column headings (e.g. To Do, In Progress, Ready to Test, Done, etc). Different add-on apps and plugins can be created by group members.
4. Asana
(asana.com). This project management and collaboration tool enables team members to work together in a flexible way. Teamwork without email is the official motto of Asana. The communication and collaboration among team members gets significantly improved due to the tasks having different priority levels. Team members can easily create, assign and comment on tasks.
5. Teamwork
(www.teamwork.com). Projects can be better organized with this project management tool. A lot of redundant meetings can be reduced thanks to Teamwork. The tool has an emphasis on getting things done. Teamwork facilitates communication and collaboration among team members. The team can work conveniently from remote locations. All members remain accountable for their assigned tasks.
Bonus 1
ProjectManager.com - this online project management tool enables teams to work together from anywhere in the world and coordinate without endless emails. While it’s great for collaboration and coordination, ProjectManager.com stands out with its in depth planning tools such as the Gantt chart. The Gantt allows team leaders and managers to create and assign tasks with minimal effort or time. Once you’ve gotten your project under way, the software provides the users a real time dashboard to view and track their project’s progress and important metrics.
Bonus 2
ActiveCollab - a powerful project management tool that helps your team stay organized and deliver positive results within desired timelines. With ActiveCollab, you can easily track every single step of the project development and maintain communication flow between team members with ease. Also, it gives you the ability to keep track of the time you spend on every task, organize tasks into lists and filter them by people, labels or due dates. On top of that, your team can easily create tasks, attach files, set due dates, leave comments and stay notified about updates. The best part is that it allows you to include your client into the project and let him have an overview of all stages of the project development, provide feedback and upload necessary files and documents.
What project management tool can you recommend? Please share your ideas in the comments area.
