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What's your eBusiness Strategy?
If you don't have one already, an eBusiness strategy
should be top of your list before making any decisions
about expanding your business into cyberspace. Whilst
this strategy is being developed you should also develop
or update your business plan and consider your financial
position (e.g. capital available, cashflow implications).
If the right strategy is not developed and followed
then your eBusiness solutions may work correctly but
still fail to add any value to your business.
What are you trying to achieve
and how can technology help?
Are you hoping to increase sales and reach new markets
through the use of online shops, e-mail marketing campaigns
or using CRM tools?
Are you planning to add new or improve your existing
customer services using online helpdesks, appointment
booking, manuals and other information, electronic newsletters
or providing electronic links to/from your suppliers/customers
so they can expand their services.
Is your mission to cut administration costs by adopting
online payment systems, using the Internet for research
and finding new suppliers or through better communication
and more efficient processes?
Which of these changes will
have the biggest impact on your business?
In order to establish how well eBusiness will work for
your organisation, it is important to consider how appropriate
the internet will be to your products / services, your
customers and your resources.
1. Are your products / services suitable for
the Internet?
Consider:
- Are they generic or customised?
- Are your products durable, perishable or fragile?
- How will they be delivered?
2. Are your customers accessible through the
Internet?
Consider:
- Who do you sell to?
- Do your customers use the internet?
- Where are your customers located (locally, nationally
or abroad?)
- Will they buy on impulse or planned?
- Will they place orders directly or require demo's?
- Is it preferable that they visit your business
premises?
- How will they pay (cash, on credit, cash deposit
or balance on delivery?)
- Are your customers familiar and confident in buying
on the web?
- Do they have the means to buy on the web?
- Would customers want to make the purchase electronically?
3. Do you have the necessary resources to implement
your strategy?
Consider:
- How do you want your business to develop in the future?
- How much money/time do you intend to spend on maintaining your site?
- Does your business have the resources or qualified staff to keep an active site maintained and correctly supported?
- Will you outsource maintenance and technical support?
- What form of customer support will be offered?
- What staffing levels are required for customer support?
- Will you need to hire additional personnel or train current staff to fulfil the new business requirements?
- What is the required level of integration between your site and any it systems?
How will you successfully
implement your eBusiness model?
Creating a Company Website
If you want to provide online information about your
business and your products and services, you will need
a website (Important things to include shown opposite).
Having your own domain name, e.g. www.yourcompany.co.uk
is a good idea as it helps to assure your visitors that
you are a genuine business as well as building your
brand. The same applies to email addresses. Note domain
registrars often allow you to setup email fowarding
which will allow you to accept email at yourname@yourcompany.co.uk
instead of user1234@aol.com.
It's important to remember that having a website does
not necessarily mean that people will come to it or
even if they do that they will come back again. If you're
hoping that visitors will come to you via the search
engines then you'll need to consider your online marketing
campaign early on. Click here for more information about
search engine optimisation.
Online Interactive Marketing
An online interactive marketing site usually enables
users to search through a detailed online catalogue
of your products and services. An interactive web strategy
should encourage online feedback from customers and/or
suppliers. It is essential that you evaluate your capacity
to manage the volume of feedback and maintain your online
catalogue.
Trading Online
Trading online will mean integrating the Internet into
your business. It will not be as easy as adding a website
to your present business. An Internet solution needs
to be deeply woven into your operations. You will need
to identify where the Internet can improve channel and
operational efficiency and enhance customer relationships.
In transforming your business you will need to assess
whether the costs of developing and managing an online
trading facility (e.g. financial investment, time, skill
development, ongoing infrastructure and resource requirements)
are a viable and financially rewarding proposition for
your business. you will need to consider aspects such
as:
- Interactive shopping baskets
- Secure transaction facilities
- Customer relationship management
- Supply chain management
Talk to Seagrass
about your eBusiness requirements and we will help you
develop a strategy that works for you.
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