We are going to start Course 2 with one part of our 9Ps framework: 'People'. By 'people' we mean our target customer segment. We are going to describe this ideal customer this week using a tool called 'customer personas'.

All businesses must focus their efforts on a specific set of customers - not just anyone. This activity shows us how to select, segment and target customers.

We need our customer segments but we also need to understand our customers deeply to know who they really are and what problems we are trying to solve for them. That's why we create 'customer personas'.

Now that you are excited about customer personas and why they are important, use your creativity to flesh out customer personas for your eCommerce business.

We have learnt about one of the 9Ps this week - 'People'. Customer segments help to know the size and shape of our target market while customer personas help us to understand their emotional and behavioural likes and dislikes.

The 'digital shelf' is how and where shoppers engage with an eCommerce store. This week we are diving into the details of it and exploring how to get customers to buy from your store. Let's call it 'winning on the digital shelf'!

To be successful in eCommerce, we need to help customers find, discover and pay for our products. We are going to use the idea of the 'digital shelf'' to explain everything you need to do to capture a sale.

The homepage is the main ‘page’ of your eCommerce store – think of it as the entrance to your shop. To ensure our products make their way into shoppers’ online baskets, you will need to follow homepage best practice.

Category pages are like the store aisles in a high street shop – rows of digital shelves. To ensure our products make their way into shoppers’ online baskets, you will need to follow category pages best practice.

A product page is where a customer is presented with product they want. Just like when you pick up a product in a shop, the product page is where potential consumers make up their mind whether to buy or not.

A picture paints a thousand words. For eCommerce stores, visual content is made up of product images, supplementary images and product videos. Create and use them all if you can.

The digital shelf is the collection of diverse digital touchpoints used by shoppers to engage with your eCommerce store to discover, research, and purchase products. This week we learnt the best practice for the digital shelf.

This week we are talking about 'P' for 'Proposition'. Fundamental to the success of any eCommerce store is the online value proposition of the store and the role of ratings and reviews.

Value propositions are a fundamental part of persuading customers to buy from us. If there are endless options to choose from, shoppers should know what makes our store so special - so that they choose us!

Shoppers are leaving more reviews and rating more products more than ever before. Good ratings and reviews increase your sales and profits and drive eCommerce store loyalty.

Rating and reviews are the primary feature shoppers rely on to make informed purchase decisions, more so than product page descriptions, visuals or advertising. Having an active strategy to collect ratings and rating is paramount.

Thinking through your customer value proposition is about telling a potential customer why they should buy from you. Ratings and reviews are about existing customers telling prospective shoppers why they should choose you.