At home on the Web - designing a Web page - includes related articles on firms that do not need Web sites, picking a provider, the anatomy of a successful Web site and Web glossary - Internet

Home Office Computing, April, 1996 by Rosalind Resnick, Jim Sterne

Everything you need to know to design your page & make it work.

Step into Peter Granoff's wine store and you can practically smell the chardonnay. Granoff, a world-renowned wine expert, is the cofounder of Virtual Vineyards, a Los Altos, California, wine emporium that peddles its wares not through a bricks-and-mortar storefront but through a site on the Internet's World Wide Web. Since Virtual Vineyards (http://www.virtualvin.com/) went live a little over a year ago, hundreds of thousands of visitors have surfed over to check it out and in many cases, to buy. Though Granoff won't disclose sales figures, he says that dollar and unit sales are growing at a rate of 20 percent or better a month.

As success stories like Granoff's show, the Web has taken off faster than the savviest pundits could have predicted. Two years ago you couldn't even have had your own site on the Web. Last year you needed one to look cool and to show the world your business was on the cutting edge. Two years from now, a Web site will be as much a business standard as a fax machine or voice mail (when was the last time you called a company and got a busy signal?).

Now that almost everybody can have a Web site, many are rushing to get theirs launched so fast, they forget to stop and smell the reasons. Before setting up shop on the Web just because you can--or because your competitor/neighbor/brother-in-law has done so--think about what you want to accomplish. You can use your Web page to increase awareness of your products or services. You can expand your audience. You can improve your customer service. And you can generate sales. But if you bite off more than you can chew, you'll likely end up with a Web site that never gets launched.

Here we show you how three entrepreneurs achieved the goals they set for their Web sites, and explain how you can make your Web site work. (Note: Words that are in boldface and underscored are defined in the accompanying box "Geek-Speak Glossary.")

Spreading Your Message The secret to Virtual Vineyards's success is that it doesn't simply sell wine. It entices wine buffs into an informative, interactive world where they can do everything from tour the site to pose questions to the Cork Dork (Granoff). A tasting chart accompanies each wine from every listed winery--so far, there are 40 wineries plus 12 specialty food producers. The chart features sliding indicators denoting intensity, dryness, body, acidity, tanning, oak flavors, and complexity. Along with each listed wine is a JPEG image of the label, a write-up by the Cork Dork himself, and a Remember This Wine button that shoppers can click on to simplify the ordering process. A glossary of terms, articles from Wine & Spirits magazine, and recipes for meals to go with the wines complete the offering.

"I try to make wine very user-friendly," says Granoff, who takes the time to personally answer visitors' e-mail. "I want people to feel as if there's no such thing as a stupid question."

Educating prospects on the wonders of your products or services is a delicate thing. Hit them with everything at once and you'll scare them. Don't tell them enough and you'll bore them. Keep in mind that each Web site visitor has a unique agenda. To lead visitors to your order form, you'll need to create just enough paths so that each can find his or her own way. Successful Web sites are sprinkled liberally--but deliberately--with hyperlinks, which allow visitors to click and choose as they please. For example, from Virtual Vineyards's homepage you can jump to wine descriptions, special offers, a profile of Granoff, and more. And on every page there's a link to the order form, for whenever you're ready to buy.

Expanding Your Audience Since 1984 the Spindler family has run a retail candy store in the rolling hills of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Business has been good at the Chocolate Factory--for a small confectioner, that is. After 10 years in operation, the Spindlers set up shop on the Web with the aim of reaching millions of customers around the globe. The company's Web site (http://mmink.com/mmink/dossiers/choco.html) features clever descriptions of the company's delicious products along with mouth-watering pictures. Customers who like what they see can place their orders online or call a toll-free number. Currently, the Chocolate Factory Web site draws 700 to 1,000 visitors a week, making it a far more effective marketing tool for the company than its direct-mail catalog.

Karen Spindler, who manages the store and wrote the ad copy for the site, says the eight-person company has received more than 1,000 orders from the Internet so far. Business is especially brisk on such holidays as Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, where online orders account for as much as 40 percent of the company's sales. Though these Internet orders still make up only a small part of the company's annual sales, it's not a bad return on the $40 the company invests each month to rent space from a cybermall operator.