Business to E-Business - Company Business and Marketing

Home Office Computing, Nov, 2000 by Amee Abel

The quick and pain-free way to take your company online

Taking your business online is like throwing a party: You have to scout a location, plan the menu, and invite the guests. And there are other small details to consider--the kind of site you want to build, who will host your site, and how you'll process orders and handle payment. Although what you serve is up to you, we can guide you through the preparations. We'll show you how to get from concept to the grand opening.

DOT-COM 101

Think of a Web site as your company's brochure; it gives visitors a preview of your business, dues customers in to what makes your company run, provides basics such as Links to other related sites and an e-mail newsletter, and performs other soft sales tasks. In the same vein, think of an online store as you would a catalog, featuring information about and images of the products you sell It includes a Buy Now button that links to an electronic "shopping cart," which records the items your customer has selected. An e-commerce-enabled store can actually take the sales process all the way from transaction to delivery. Most companies' Internet presence includes both a Web site and a store. Both work hand-in-hand to create a company's e-commerce site. Sometimes, the Web site and online store are created at the same time and hosted by the same company. Often, they are not; data for the Web site may be hosted on the 10MB of free data storage included in a business's monthly ISP contract, while the revenue-producing catalog and shopping cart portion of the site resides on a host computer hundreds of miles away. Despite this, they work together seamlessly. Best of all, you don't have to wrestle with HTML coding--linking a store to a Web site is a basic option offered by almost all store-building software.

MAKE A PLAN

Before you select software for your e-commerce Web site, envision what you need the site to do. For instance, if your business is service-based, such as a consulting or graphic design firm, you'll need a brochure that highlights what you do and makes it easy for prospects to contact you. If you sell products, you'll need features such as online credit card processing or a catalog. You should look for an e-business service provider (eBSP) that offers the right fit for your business.

Because you wear many hats, you don't have time to devote exclusively to developing a Web site. It's important to find and work with tools that will get the job done right quickly. Look for a company that focuses on providing services to small businesses rather than one aimed at the corporate or consumer market.

PICK A NUMBER

Does each item you stock have its own identifying number? Make sure your eBSP can accommodate your number of items--and check into where your costs jump. For instance, Yahoo Store charges $100 a month for 50 items, then jumps to $300 a month for catalogs of 51 to 1,000 items. What if you offer similar items of different size and color (for example, T-shirts)?

Make sure the store-building software you select lets you identify product attributes and can handle your business growth when you broaden your product offerings. This is a fact often overlooked by novice Web sellers, but is crucial if you plan to grow your business beyond a few items.

CREATE A SITE

Now that you've considered what you need--and what you want to accomplish (sell more, increase visibility, improve customer service, and so forth)--the next step is setting up your store. Easier than cooking up a Web site from scratch, online Web site and store-building software offers a basic level of customization. While the underlying structure remains the same for every site, you can customize color schemes, menus, navigation, and content to fit your business. The result is a near-infinite variety of Web sites produced by a standard set of tools. One caveat: Make sure you pick a host with a wide range of templates and a variety of color options.

Online site builders step you through site construction via a series of forms and questions. You select page layout from an assortment of design templates by clicking on the one you like best. Typically you can then view samples of the template arranged with different color schemes. Most online site builders let you upload images to customize your site's design even further. This way you can easily add your store's logo and insert product photos onto catalog pages.

Finally, the program will prompt you to type text into forms to create titles, descriptions, and other information. The software puts your selections together into a ready-to-publish Web site that reflects your unique business.

Alternatives to online site-building tools are boxed software solutions such as Microsoft's FrontPage 2000 ($150; www. microsoft.com), Corel's Print Office 2000 ($50; 800-772-6735, www.corel.com), or Macromedia's DreamWeaver UltraDev ($600; 800-470-7211, www.macromedia. com). These products are geared toward those who have some experience building at least a basic Web site, so if you're comfortable with coding, and have the time, they're relatively affordable options.