Seven Strategies for Building and Managing an Internet Business

By 2004 Forrester Research, Inc. estimates that business-to- business commerce on the Web will hit $2.7 trillion. It seems that everyday new companies are turning to the Web as a method of gaining customers and making money. It's true that the Web can be a highly profitable venture, but without careful planning, your business may flounder before it ever makes money. Following these seven steps can help you plan a cohesive strategy before you sell your first product.

Identify Your Internet Business

Ask yourself why customers would come to your Web site. Is it an extension of your bricks and mortar store? Or will it be a stand- alone operation? What can you provide that no one else can? Of what value is your site to customers? Even if you don't sell online, you need to answer these questions. Customers don't always come to a Web site to buy products. Sometimes they come for information. Tell them about the products you sell, give them your store hours and phone number, provide a map so they can find your shop. Even though you haven't sold them anything, you've given them value. Customers will come back to your site if you provide value.

Create a well designed, easy-to-use, fast, and functional Web site

Your Web site should have a clean, straightforward design. Customers don't like busy, cluttered sites. Make organization simple and make the steps through your site obvious. Keep your site easy to navigate. A customer should be able to find a product in two mouse clicks. Any more and they feel like they're being led through a maze. Or worse, they may lose interest and leave.

Keep the graphics and text simple and small. Animation and sound files can be interesting, but don't force customers to view these items in order to buy a product.

There are many options for managing orders. The most popular way to manage orders is through shopping cart technology. The customer goes through the site and picks items s/he wants to buy. At check out, s/he fills in billing details and purchases the items. Building a shopping cart requires programming knowledge or a software package that can manage the behind the scenes work.

How will you process sales? Sales can be processed online, offline or a combination of both. Each step a customer must take to order an item is a potential opt-out point. Does the customer need to print out an order form and mail in a check? What if s/he doesn't have a printer? What if there's not a stamp handy? Customers want an acknowledgment of their order. If a customer orders via email, will there be a confirmation auto-response email sent in return?

Can customers pay online with a credit card? They increasingly like the convenience of this. The order is placed quickly and they receive an instant confirmation receipt. However, your store must be enabled to accept online credit card purchases. This requires both a merchant account that accepts online orders and an electronic gateway that facilitates the transaction. Ask if this is included in your Web developer's quoted fees or look for a software package that can handle the establishment of online merchant accounts.

Select the right domain name

A domain name is an extension of your store. It is the first thing people learn about the store, so the name should be relevant to the business. If you own a store or a brand name, this should be the domain name as well. Make it easy to remember and easy to type. Many single words have been registered as domains already. New domain names can be up to 67 characters long, so choose a combination of words that describes your store.

Post your site to a trustworthy Web-hosting provider

Your site is effective only when people can see it. If your Web site is inaccessible, you can't do business. Use a Web-hosting provider that guarantees a high level of service. They should have daily backups and redundant systems. A good provider gives you access to your site statistics. This is more accurate than the number of hits. Statistics can tell you where customers are coming from, what they look at and what lead them there in the first place. Because you are dealing with sensitive information, your provider should use state of the art security to protect your site from hackers.

Next: Promote Your Website, Stay Informed and Change your Web site

This article originally appeared in the May 18, 2000 edition of the WebReference Update Newsletter.