What is your business doing on the Web?
Tags: e-commerce, small business, web design
Over three years ago I wrote a small business guide to e-commerce which has been widely published around the internet. The guide gave an objective and no-nonsense take on using the internet in business and e-commerce in particular. Based on experience gained from running online retail operations and designing websites for others - it was a “don’t make the mistakes I did” style document.
In 2008 the internet is a different place again, most notably, faster bandwidth is much more widely and cheaply available, and processing power and storage have never been cheaper which together, have been key enablers in the development of more sophisticated web applications which in turn has driven user expectations of the internet even higher.
The internet has shaped the way we do business since the early 1990s. At first it was peripheral, the domain of the few, three years ago it was already central to business life, today it is taken for granted. People expect your business to have a website, they expect to be able to communicate with you via email, and buying online is now more “normal” than taking a trip to the shops.
So technologies have advanced still further and use is more widespread, thanks to takeup, access opportunities and bandwidth, but web applications as far as I can see still leverage the fact that the internet is a communication mechanism, and one or more of the following benefits of the Internet.
- Immediacy. High speed data transmission means communication can be almost instantaneous.
- Frequency. Access, through mobile broadband and wireless hotspots have made the internet even more convenient. Communication can and is likely to happen more often because of this.
- Cost efficiency. Migrating traditional communication to utilise internet technologies can greatly reduce costs.
So how should your business use the Internet and in particular the communication benefits? Below are just a few areas your Business should consider.
- Commerce - e-commerce has become synonamous with the Internet; from presenting product information, to marketing, to communication with Customers - costs are often very low.
- Business Awareness - You don’t have to sell directly to leverage the web. Providing industry sector, latest news, product range or simple directions. The Internet is ideal for delivering information about your Business to a wide audience at low cost.
- Image - Brand and Image are important assets to Business. The Internet can be used to promote an image and reinforce a brand.
- Community - A web site can provide a superb focal point for people with similar interests, especially where visitors are encouraged to interact with your Business and each other. Look at how social media applications like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter have done over the last three years.
- Support - Providing post sale support, or just dealing with frequently asked questions, a website can be used to provide a structured mechanism for providing help or information.
- Competition - In an age where businesses without a website are increasingly the exception, a professionally designed website may differentiate your Business from your competitors’.
If you think of any web site you use, the benefits users and the Business itself derive from it will mostly relate to communication and fall into one of the three categories previously mentioned; immediacy; frequency and cost efficiency.
To summarise, your website and e-business should faciliate immediate, more frequent communication, and should exploit the Internet to reduce overheads through more cost efficient communication.
