Building a website should be a part of your overall e-strategy and help you meet your business objectives. If you're starting out, here are some of the key steps involved:
Getting started
Determining if your product can be purchased over the web
First assess whether or not your product should be sold online. Put yourself in your customer's shoes; how important is it for them to see and feel the real thing? Given the additional shipping costs involved, do your customers actually want to buy online? Do they want more in-depth product information? Would they feel more comfortable dealing with a brick-and-mortar store in case of returns and repairs?
If you're thinking of selling online, consider these different scenarios.
- If you're selling low-cost items that are readily available in local stores and where shipping represents more than 20% of the price, chances are people won't find any benefit to buying online.
- Low-cost items that are not readily available locally may be appealing, but be sure to check your market potential and price carefully.
- Costlier products where shipping represents a small portion of the price may be a successful online seller.
Assessing your competition
The most successful web-based businesses usually have a specific niche serving untapped markets; for example, Amazon was the first to tap into the online book market. Be sure that you offer customers something that they couldn't find at a recognized retailer for a lower rate. If you're new to the e-commerce world, you might consider testing the waters by selling your product in an e-marketplace. Essentially, you'll be able to determine people's interest in your product before investing in building an online store.
Developing your site
A website is a collection of text, images, data, and software applications that are hosted on one or more servers connected to the Internet. Once you have decided to invest in developing a website, there are a few important things to consider: determine whether you will develop the site yourself or outsource the work to another company. Consider how much of your website needs to be custom developed, and how much can be based on available components.
In-house vs. outsourcing development
Developing your website in-house means that it will be developed by people who work for your company. For companies who already have a full web development team in place, this may be a viable option. Most companies, however, do not have the required expertise on staff, and so need to look to an outside supplier to develop the site for them.
It is important to remember that the work involved in developing a website is different from the site's day-to-day operations in both kind and quantity. Development work is focused on creating and implementing new features, whereas the day-to-day operations focus on updating the site, processing orders, and addressing any problems that may occur. The staff of a web development team also tend to be more specialized and in many cases more numerous then the team required to keep the site running. For these reasons, many companies choose to outsource the development of their websites, while having a small number of people to handle the ongoing operations.
Custom development vs. off-the-shelf components
When developing their first website, many companies assume that they need to develop all the site's functionality from scratch. There are a number of stable, feature-rich software components and application platforms that developers can use. Typical functionality includes product catalogs, shopping cards, user account information, content management systems, and discussion forums. These can be purchased "off-the-shelf" and integrated into a website with a reasonable amount of effort.
Although many off-the-shelf components do have licensing fees, those fees are usually much less then what it would cost you to develop the same software on your own. Off-the-shelf software has also been tested, so you won't have to spend time tracking down errors and debugging code.
If you are outsourcing the work, you will need to make the option for off-the-shelf components clear to the development firm. Good firms will have a strategy in place for combining off-the-shelf software and custom development to build a site that meets your needs while differentiating you from others in your market.
Turnkey solutions
Some companies offer turnkey website and e-commerce solutions. These sites enable you to get up an running with a basic but operational website with little or no software development required. Turnkey solutions are much less expensive then development projects, and might be a good choice for smaller companies who are just getting started with e-commerce.
When does custom development make sense?
There are some aspects of web development that require customization. The visual design of the site will need to reflect your unique corporate brand, your look-and-feel. The content of the site will need to be created specifically for your company. Any new and innovative functionality (ex. Amazon's One-Click Ordering feature) will require custom development.
Hosting issues
Part of your web development project will involve choosing the best hosting arrangement for your website. Companies that have the necessary infrastructure in place might choose to host their web servers in their own facilities.
Hosting a website requires a significant investment in security and networking infrastructure. This includes facilities with physical security and measures in place to deal with power outages, network interruptions, fires, floods, and any other events that are likely to interrupt operation of your site.
Hosting your site also means hiring or training staff that are skilled in deploying and maintaining web servers. Keep in mind that the security and performance issues for web servers are very different from internal servers. Even if you have IT staff, they may need additional training before they are ready to handle running complex web servers.
Most companies do not have the resources required to host their own web servers, nor are they willing to invest more resources to put the required infrastructure in place. The majority of companies choose to outsource the hosting to another company, usually a major Internet service provider (ISP) or other company that specializes in hosting.
Outsource hosting can take on a variety of forms:
- Companies can purchase their server(s) and place them in the hosting facility
- Companies can rent their server(s) from the hosting company
- Companies can rent space on a server that they share with one or more of the hosting company's other customers
If you want additional information on these types of services, go to Whir Find Web Hosts, an extensive industry review magazine on hosts.
Setting up security for a transactional website
Security is one of the most important factors impeding e-commerce. After all, customers needs to be assured that their transactions are secure. Your supplier will help you to obtain a Digital Certificate and find a payment processing company.
Designing your website
Here are some general guidelines to consider:
- Know your customers and what they look for on your site: this will help you determine how to organize your homepage so that it is meaningful.
- Avoid jargon and employ simple, clear and user-friendly language. i.e., GO! as opposed to NAVIGATE!
- Respect your brand; use logos, colors and language that reflects your company image.
- Use professional-quality colour photos; thumbnail images are ideal for shopping.
- Avoid clutter, such as advertising and award banners that don't reflect your company's image.
- Be sure you provide alternative contact information, such as a telephone number, a fax number, and a postal address.
- Be emphatic with large type and bold typefaces.
When setting up your navigational structure, keep these pointers in mind:
- Be sure to arrange information thoughtfully so that users can jump back and forth easily.
- Give your customers a choice of navigational tools to move around. For example, links within the text can be a useful way to link to other resources in the site. Clickable graphics can grab users' attention. A search function allows the user to get the information they want themselves.
- Keep the site simple; the more complex the navigation, the more danger there is that you will lose your customer. If customers can't find what they want in 3 clicks, you might need to redesign your navigation.
Creating content
Writing for any electronic medium requires you to be concise, informative and user-friendly. Make sure users get what they need up front without having to dig through several layers. Here are some of the key elements to include:
- Focus on the benefits of your products or services when you describe them. The text and picture should be able to answer just about any question a customer could have in order to give them the confidence to purchase.
- Include a how-to-order section outlining the ordering process for your customer. Be sure to disclose all the shipping, processing and return policies.
- Provide sufficient background on your company. Avoid jargon and describe exactly what you do. Your clients wants to know why they should do business with you.
- Use customer testimonials to build your company's credibility and be sure to get their approval first.
- Include contact information and make it easy for clients to reach you.
- A Frequently Asked Questions section can help you deal with typical customer inquiries.
- Tell your customers how you will protect their personal information.
- The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act requires you to get consent from users to electronically solicit information. Be sure that this is clearly posted on your site and not buried somewhere.
