Feature Stories - January 2000

E-Commerce or Brochures in the Sky

Is Your Internet Site Worth its Wavelengths?

by Cindie Geddes

Gone are the days when a mere In­ternet presence equaled e-com­merce. The intelligence of trying to save money by having a friend of a friend design your Web site on the weekend is akin to joining the Flat Earth Society. Relying on hit counters to analyze the utility of a site is history. And if you think your com­pany doesn’t have to worry about high-tech sales, think again. “What we’re see­ing here,” says Jeff Obst, CEO of edurus in Carson City, “is a revolution that will be as dramatic as the industrial revolution.”

More and more people are turning to the ease of buying online. E-tailers now offer comparative pricing, company informa­tion, product information and sales for those who find going online preferable to standing in line. But professionals such as dentists, attorneys and dry cleaners are es­tablishing a presence as well, because the

‘Net is where a lot of people go for re­search and quality comparisons. “Busi­nesses that don’t take advantage of the In­ternet and ignore it,” says Obst, whose company assists businesses in obtaining and keeping an online presence, “will not be in business very long.”

In 1998, online revenues accounted for 0.5 percent of all retail sales, or $14.9 bil­lion. Online shopping revenues are slated to hit the $36 billion mark in 1999, a 145 percent surge. That number is expected to increase again to over $380 billion by 2003. With major corporations like Wal­Mart and Merrill Lynch making a commit­ment to e-commerce, the need is becoming more and more apparent. Today’s con­sumers expect to be able to contact you via the Internet, either through e-mail or a Web contact page. Is your business attracting its share of these anything-but-virtual dollars?

“Ninety percent of all businesses in the country don’t even have a Web site,” says John Graham of Graham Communica­tions in Massachusetts. “And 90 percent of existing Web sites are virtually use­less.” That 90 percent falls under the head­ing of what Graham calls “brochures in the sky” — sites that only say who the company is and what it does. These sites do not offer a place where products or services can be paid for, they do not offer free information in the company’s indus­try and they offer no entertainment value — all three of which are important to a suc­cessful Web site. Many of these sites in­clude no other way to contact businesses besides a street address.

Revolutionalizing Commerce

The Internet has changed the face of competition. One of the primary benefits of taking your business online is the total lack of geographic limits. People from around the world can purchase your prod­ucts as if you were just around the corner. However, the downside to that is that other companies from around the world can more effectively compete against you. “Companies that consider the Internet a big part of their business,” says Obst, “are will able to capture customers from simi­lar businesses in other areas of the world.” A Web site needs to be taken as seriously as a brick and mortar storefront, because on the Internet that is exactly what it rep­resents. It may be the only contact cus­tomers have with you. Their first impres­sion will not be based on the friendliness of your sales staff or the quality of your decor, but rather on the speed and ease of navigation at your Web site.

Graham believes commerce is entering an entirely new era in which e-commerce expenditures will comprise one of the largest items in any company budget. The increase in a company’s presence on the Internet may mean savings in other areas, but there is no getting around the fact that an efficient Web site involves a major in­vestment. This monetary outlay will also be affected by technology, sophistication of marketing strategies and expertise as more and more professionals become Web savvy. Keeping up with the Joneses — who are only a click away from your site — is going to cost. But, as Graham stresses, “The Web is not about cheap; it is about accessing customers.”

Is Your Site Doing Its Job?

If your site is already established and you want to know if it is doing its job, here are some things to consider.

How quickly does the site load? Ten seconds is a long wait on the Web. Some ways to increase your speed, according to July Linett, vice president of Zerowait Corporation, include investing in a good behind-the-scenes storage device, such as a fast filer behind an application service, Web caching and using a load balancer. Zerowait’s specialty entails working with the infrastructure of e-commerce compa­nies to keep them online so that when cus­tomers are ready to buy, the firm’s site is up and ready. Load balancing keeps the site immediately available. Customers aren’t willing to wait more than a few seconds for a site to load, so you want to be as efficient as possible to cut costs. She also suggests considering bandwidth usage. Even a high-bandwidth T-1 line can easily become clogged by inefficient caching or unnecessarily large graphics. Obst, too, suggests you check your graph­ics for size — file size in bytes, not the physical size on the screen.

Can the customer contact you before, during and after a sale? You should include access through e-mail as well as over the phone. One of Linett’s pet peeves is sites that make you hunt for a simple address, e­mail address or phone number to contact the company. The e-mail address should be right up front, if not on every page.

Can the customer buy your product or service online with a credit card? A major annoyance for customers (especially Gen­eration Xers) is finding a great site featuring a product they love and having no imme­diate way to order it. Consumers are grow­ing increasingly sophisticated and de­manding, and accommodating an impulse to buy may mean the difference between a sale for you or a sale for your competitor.

Is the site appropriate for your compa­ny? If you’re selling boats, put pictures of boats, not flying, whirling logos. From wallpaper to logos to information avail­able on the site to the language you use, the customer will form an opinion of what kind of company you run and what kind of customer you are targeting. “There are a lot of dull sites out there,” says Graham, “but there are a lot of dull companies.”

Is your marketing campaign integrated? Branding is one of the keys to e-com­merce success. Your stationery, business cards, Web page and print ads should share a style easily recognizable to the consumer. Your Web URL should be listed on all corporate print materials. In this day and age, your Web address is as important to your business as your phone number.

Are you attracting sufficient numbers of customers to your site and guaranteeing their return? Exploit the connectivity of the Web by leveraging affiliate programs and portal relationships. Many buyers will not make purchases their first time visit­ing your site, so give them reasons to come back. Adding such amenities as free e-mail (check out everyone.net for free Web-based e-mail you can customize for your company), e-zines offering useful information about your industry in gen­eral and your products/services in particu­lar, discussion lists, Web boards and coupons will help bring people back to your site. Surveys and offers of prizes for filling them out will help you identify your client base and serve it more effectively.

Does the site feel safe? E-consumers know not to give their credit card out willy-nilly over the ‘Net. They need to not only feel they can trust you as a company, but also your Internet security features. Linett says you don’t always need a fire­wall (package filtering with a load bal­ancer is easier to maintain and causes fewer bottlenecks), but your site needs proper reassurances as to the privacy of information customers may give you. Obst suggests secure socket layer technol­ogy~ But any technology you invest in today may be outdated by next year, so built-in flexibility is as important to your Internet investment as it is with your com­puter equipment investment.

Customer service is the key to e-com­merce, but ironically it is often overlooked. Too often Web sites are designed based on determining what the business wants to tell the customer, rather than putting thought into what the customer wants to see. As with any kind of business, the key to con­tinued success is to draw people to your site, keep them there to spend money and bring them back again and again. Graham stresses that a Web site is more akin to pro­ducing a daily paper than it is to creating a brochure. Information should be constantly updated and kept current, new features cre­ated and links added — anything that tells the Web surfer that this is not the exact site he or she saw before will help you meet your business goals.

Technology offers a variety of ways to track your Web traffic. Server logs list every request made to the server and can tell you where users are coming from, how long they are staying and common paths to your site. These logs can help you improve navigation and tell you what cus­tomers think of your program by revealing what they typically view in what order and when they leave (for example, if a customer departs after reading your war­ranty, maybe it’s time to beef up that por­tion of your business). Server plug-ins add features or services to help you compile usage data directly from the server. Web site measurement vendors also offer net­work sniffers — programs or devices that monitor data traveling over a network. A reputable Web presence provider should have reports available to you. An added benefit to eliminating casual traffic is an increase in the speed at which your site downloads as well.

With all the customer behavior tools available to shadow online shoppers, it’s worth the time to crunch the data and make necessary and effective changes to your site. Knowledge is power.

Obst says, “Businesses need to think of the Internet as one of the strategic parts of their business. It’s not just ‘nice to have’ but a requirement.” The revolution is here. Where is your business?