Making sure that nothing goes wrong
Web site and email address
It is important to get the right web site (domain name) and email addresses, so that your customers and suppliers can find you online quickly and easily. Your web site address should be easy to remember. It should also effectively represent your company image and make the nature of your business clear to potential customers.
Domain names
Your web site designer will be able to advise you on choosing the correct domain name. To avoid any disputes, it is best practice to register all variations of your brand name. You should also check with the person responsible for registering your domain name to find out who actually owns the site.
Customer confidence
On the high street, customer confidence is affected by several factors, including:
- how a shop looks
- the variety of stock available
- the face-to-face service offered there
In e-commerce, the web site acts as your shop front. Its appearance and accessibility will give new customers confidence in the site. Other factors will help to keep existing customers’ confidence, including:
- secure transactions and information exchange
- speed of delivery
- confidentiality
- communication
- content on the web site (for example, displaying guarantee procedures, delivery options and full contact details)
- keeping to the stated terms and conditions
Address any concerns your customers may have. Some people worry about credit card security and are reluctant to buy goods or services over the Internet. Reassure them, by providing security information for your web site and giving them an alternative method of payment (for example, by cheque).
Accessibility
Accessibility is increasingly becoming a legal requirement. With the UK government committed to making information accessible to everyone, it is essential to work to accessibility guidelines, to protect your business against civil legal actions. Many of the features that make a site accessible will benefit not only users with disabilities, but everyone else, too.
E-business and security
If you are trading online, you need to have secure processes and also be able to reassure your customers about them. You should hold any secure information on a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypted domain. SSL is the industry standard connection for secure transmission of data. Your secure checkout pages must be located on an SSL encrypted domain, too.
Customer privacy – personal details
Personal databases should be kept in a password-protected area. If you keep paper copies, make sure they are stored securely. Destroy credit card information after processing a transaction.
Understanding your customers
Find out about your customers – why they buy and how they buy. If you fail to understand their expectations, habits and motivations, you are unlikely to sell to them. Carry out competitor, industry and market research to avoid this problem.
Competition
Think about your competitive situation. Are you competing with any major e-commerce web sites? What do you have to offer that is different from the major web sites? Make the most of the features that make your business special.
Coping with demand
E-commerce web sites are accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that customers can place orders at any time. Can your staff, hardware, software and processes handle this sort of demand? Avoid any problems by planning your resources and training your staff to cope.
Price
E-commerce web sites may seem more costly than a brochure or corporate
web site, due to the wide range of functions that they have to perform.
In working
out the profitability of running an e-commerce site, measure the many
extra benefits that e-selling will bring to your business.
