Simply put, Vivid Vision is a document that describes in vivid detail what your ideal future would look like. It’s a great framework which helps you align your current goals and actions with your long-term strategy.
Why Do You Need a Vivid Vision for Your Ecommerce Business?
A large part of your ecommerce strategy is debating where you want to be as a business.
Planning from today’s perspective is almost impossible as there are always so many urgent things that need to be dealt with.
But if you start with the end in mind then it’s much easier to map out the journey and the steps on the way.
Start by asking yourself where you want your ecommerce business to be three years from now. This is an ideal time frame as it’s short enough to be realistic and achievable, but long enough to allow you to realize your ideas.
How to Write a Vivid Vision?
- Pick a date 3 to 5 years from now.
- Imagine that date is today.
- Now imagine what your business looks like.
- Write in the present tense.
- Write down every detail about your business.
- Don’t limit yourself. You are writing down your ideal future where (almost) everything is possible.
What Should a Vivid Vision Include?
Ideally you should include all the main areas of your business: core values, customers, products, marketing, sales, operations, finance, team, etc.
Try answering these questions:
- Who are you as a company? What do you stand for?
- What are your core values? What do you hate?
- Who are your customers? What are they saying about you?
- What’s the media saying about you?
- What’s your turnover? What’s your profit? What’s your gross margin?
- What are your main products? Which categories represent most of your turnover?
- On which markets do you operate?
- Are you a pure play online retailer or not? What percentage of your total turnover is represented by online?
- What are your main digital assets?
- What does your marketing look like?
- What does your customer experience look like?
- Where do sales come from? Which channels generate most of your revenue?
- How often are your customers buying from you? What’s their LTV? How often do they come back to your website?
- How do you measure customer satisfaction? What’s your NPS score?
- How big is your team? How are you organized?
- How’s your company running the day-to-day business? What are the main processes?
Applying Your Vivid Vision
When you have worked out your Vivid Vision it’s time to get others onboard. If you, your employees, suppliers and agencies are not seeing the exact same vision of what your company will look like in three years, the vision you see in your mind today will never happen.
Now that everybody knows where you want to be in 3 to 5 years, think about what needs to happen in order to achieve your goals. Gather your senior management team and create a wallpaper plan for your ecommerce.