Sitemakers specialise in ecommerce solutions for retailers selling on the Internet

Recent Articles

• Proudly Supporting the South West of England
• Retailers look to the internet to counter the Credit Crunch crisis
• The Cost of Selling on the Internet.
• Spring Fair 2008: Sitemakers packs out the Future Trends Stage
• Internet marketing on a budget.
• Online retailing features at the Spring Fair.
• Internet shopping increases by 76% in 2007
• 3 Step Guide to Increasing Your Christmas Sales.
• Growing dependence on the Internet.
• Christmas comes early at Shickle Shoes
• Three-step guide to increasing your Christmas sales
• Todays online statistics
• Liquidshop and LiquidWeb
• E-business and social networking at Christmas
• Technological convergence
• ATTENTION! The Companies Regulations Act 2006
• Nielsen high-profit redesign priorities
• If you're considering a website, this article is for you
• How to improve online credibility
• Online retail spending in UK set to double in the next 5 years

Join our newsletter

Enter your email address below:

RSSSubscribe to our RSS feed

Sign up to our RSS feed and automatically receive new articles straight to your favorite feed-reading program, click here to subscribe

Phone us 01458 253290

Sitemakers can help your business to thrive. Contact us

If you're considering a website, this article is for you

Venturing onto the Internet for many businesses is a very daunting prospect, but with Internet shopping increasing at a phenomenal rate it is fast becoming a necessity.

The importance of research and planning

As a manager working for a website design and marketing company I regularly see businesses quite unprepared when considering a website, businesses who need only to carry out some basic 'market research' to determine the most important aspects involved in developing a successful website.

Most, I think would agree that if you were considering opening a new shop in a different town you would indeed invest in a degree of market research or at least have some finding to support such a business development. A website should be treated with the same level of importance, if not more. As a marketplace the Internet will access the largest concentration of consumers anywhere in the world, quite possibly making this business development your most significant.

Questions and considerations that need to be addressed are very simple, for example who's your target market and are they likely to use a website? What's the competition and why are they successful on the Internet? How will you drive business to your new website when it goes live?

There are of course many other questions, considerations and information you need to think about in order to plan for a new website, but these are certainly the most vital you should be asking way before approaching a website design company. In fact unless these questions are answered the chances are your website will not be 100% right and therefore its long term future will be put under unnecessary pressure.

From my experience, market research is certainly the most neglected aspect when businesses are looking at diversifying onto the Internet. Naturally it's not for me to discourage people, after all our industry in particular is the first to benefit from the increasing trends in online shopping. However it is in our interest to see that those who do take the information super highway make a success of it. It is from long term success that results in strong working relationships and continuing investment.

Remember, the Internet doesn't work in the same way as the 'real world'

The Internet is of course a minefield and often immensely complicated and confusing for those with little or no experience. Often business practices have to be adjusted, varied and even re-considered on the web to take into account consumer behaviour as well as the search engine environment that drives the Internet.

This said it is far from being rocket science, despite what many will lead you to believe and the same core principles are applied online as they are in any other business. One of the most common misconceptions I regularly experience from talking to people is that many still assume once a new website is set free on the world wide web that anyone and everyone will see it.

This could not be further from the truth, and in some respects somewhat short-sighted. As for any business unless you tell people about it through effective marketing and promotion they are very unlikely to know about it, this is no different on the Internet. Unfortunately a lack of effective Internet marketing and promotion results in the large proportion of websites becoming lost investments. Again this can be avoided, knowing that there will be ongoing marketing costs as well as the initial website investment before you get in too deep is a reality. Beware, many website companies may try to avoid mentioning this at the initial stages to secure design work!

Realising your aspirations

So what can you do to ensure that your Internet aspirations are realised. Firstly be sure of exactly what you want from your website, it's simply not enough to decide your business needs a website because everyone else has one, particularly if you're looking at investing in ecommerce. Get a second or third opinion, preferably one outside your business and one with a degree of Internet knowledge.

As for choosing a website company it's well recommended to approach an Internet company that not only offers website design but also website marketing and management services. Look for a company who can demonstrate long term relationships with businesses they have helped get onto the Internet. And avoid anyone who says that they will submit you to Google!

For more information and advice on diversifying onto the Internet phone us on 01458 253290 or contact us