Information Sheets > Checklist
Before putting
up a web site and embarking on the route of electronic commerce, there
are some questions the SME and / or its advisor should be asking:
-
What
is the business trying to do? Why will electronic commerce help?
-
Who
will access it (i.e. what is the target market)? And does the company
need different parts of the site for different people?
-
What
percentage of customers have Internet access? If they don't have Internet
access, then they won't be able to get to it. To quote an extreme
- if you are selling Zimmer frames to old people, most of them will
never visit your site. On the other hand, hospital purchasers and
retirement home staff may well use it for other things - so if your
market is these institutions, rather than the end users, a web site
might work.
-
How
will customers find out about the site? Assuming the company's market
does have access to the internet, if they don't know about the site,
they will never go to it. How will they find out?
-
What's
in it for them to go to the site? Even if they do know of it, they
need a good reason to visit. What's the good reason? And once there,
what will keep them there?
-
Web
site name. Make it obvious.
-
What
linkages will there be with the company's other marketing materials?
A web site is not a bolt-on-goodie - it is part of the overall business,
just like the marketing brochures, the office and the secretary. Its
linkage to the rest of the business is important.
-
How
will the site be kept up-to-date? How often will it be updated? Who
will update it? Do they need training or is the update process simple?
Will this cost money, directly or indirectly?
-
Where
does the information come from? To keep the site updated, the company
needs to identify where the information will come from and how it
will get to the web site. This can be done automatically or manually,
but it won't happen by magic!
-
How
does it link to any other systems? If the company is selling across
the web, then customers can order online. What then happens to that
order? How will it get into the existing order processing system?
If the company is supplying information via the web, and that information
is already in some kind of database, how will it get to the web -
will it be re-keyed? Will the web be a "window" on to all
or part of the existing database?
-
Do
you see the web site as giving information, exchanging information,
selling things, providing a catalogue, or what? Will the site change
- less than once a month, monthly, fortnightly, weekly, daily, several
times a day? These questions dictate the type of site required.
-
Who
is the manager / director responsible for the site? There needs to
be a sponsor for this project and they need to understand the business.
Giving it to someone who understands the Internet, but not the business,
is a recipe for trouble!
-
Who
is the webmaster responsible for the site? This is where the IT people
come in - or it can be sub-contracted out to a company specialising
in this sort of work.
