Americans spent $200
billion online in 2011. The opportunity for retailers is huge--but you're not
going to grab it with a DIY website.
A report this week from
Forrester Research confirmed what just about everybody in business already
knew: Americans are buying online and they are buying a lot.
The study reported that
Americans spent more than $200 billion online in 2011 and projected that total
would rise to $327 billion in 2016. The 2016 figure represents 9 percent of all
retail sales (up from 7 percent in 2011).
Among the report’s interesting
findings:
-53 percent of Americans
made an online purchase in 2011.
-58 percent are expected
to make an online purchase in 2016.
People believe they get
the best deals when shopping online.
Tablet devices like the
iPad have spurred online impulse buying.
If these stats don’t make
you want to re-evaluate your e-commerce efforts—and perhaps plan a
redesign!—they should.
An attractive,
well-organized website, with a back-end that functions seamlessly and a
shopping cart that makes the purchasing process as easy and intuitive as
possible will do wonders for your bottom line.
Ten years ago, building a
quality e-commerce website was a highly expensive proposition. You had to hire
an outside firm to do it. Today, businesses can use any number of open-source
platforms to build a complex, yet relatively inexpensive e-commerce site.
But just because you can
do it yourself, should you?
I say no. It’s too
critical to your business not to get right. Granted, I work at a Web design
firm, but hear me out.
These cookie-cutter
websites that people are peddling for $1000 or less may be fine for some kid
with a blog or a pizza parlour looking to put their menu and phone number
online, but for most businesses, they just look cheesy.
Here's the thing about
cheap, template-driven websites: They look like every other cheap website out
there. And that cheapens your brand. It makes you look like you don't take your
marketing and messaging seriously.
Custom designs are always
going to cost more but the result is something you'll never get from a generic
template: a site that's been designed to drive real business for you. That
requires a team of people including an information architect, a designer, a
front-end coder, a back-end developer, a quality assurance expert, and a
project manager to coordinate all of the work.
But first, you must find
the right design team, Media Orb. Look for one that understands your business
and how to best promote your business online. When you are interviewing
potential designers, make sure they can point to specific case studies of
successful projects they have completed for other clients.
The design process should
always start with a planning phase: That’s when your designer should
demonstrate an understanding of your business, the competitive landscape, and
the goals for the project.
This is followed by the
design stage, where your team will map out the look and feel of the site and
lay out the navigation and functionality requirements.
Finally, after all of the
site specs are agreed upon, the front and back-end coding will begin. At this
stage, the quality assurance process tests the site’s functionality across a
variety of browsers.
It’s not a fast or cheap
process. (And, by the way, it doesn’t end there: The next step involves driving
traffic to it with sound marketing strategies.)
If want to be in
business, then you need to be online. But if you’re doing a bad job of it
online, you have no business being in business in the first place.
Kind Regards
The Media Orb Team
Content taken from http://www.inc.com
