See Your Website As A High Street Shop
You dont have to be a genius to work out why all the major retailing chains pay extra to lease a store in the High Street
. So why do so many companies think that to make money online all you have to do is build a website and sit back and wait for the money to roll in?
More people walk by shop windows in the main thoroughfare than pass outlets in obscure side streets. Similarly, successful retailers go to great lengths to create stylish window displays to entice customers in while others simply clutter up their shop fronts without giving much thought to presentation.
Despite such obvious characteristics of the competitive High Street retailing environment, most online businesses think that all they have to do to join the internet retailing boom is to get a website built and then sit back and wait for the orders to start rolling in.
Although it is true that online business is growing at a far faster pace than anything that is happening at street level, it is no good thinking that all you have to do is establish your web presence and leave the power of the worldwide web to do the rest. That may have worked for the early movers like Lastminute.com and Amazon who were operating largely unopposed but the web is so much more mature these days that there are now tens of thousands of operators in every sector all jostling for the same business.
In todays much more mature environment, it is essential that web-based businesses get back to basics and learn the simple lessons of how the High Street has evolved; why is a prime site so vital and, secondly, why is presentation so important?
First and foremost, you have to have as many shoppers walking by as possible and, secondly, you have to entice as many of them as possible to come into your store and buy something. Exactly the same ground rules apply in the online environment.
Therefore your website first needs to be seen and then it needs to be as attractive and interesting as possible while still being functional. If your site suffers from poor presentation, unnecessary clutter and difficult navigation, it is odds on that your prospective customers will either get bored or confused and walk out before they even see your product and the price.
It is amazing how many budding new web businesses still think they can establish a serious presence in the marketplace without investing anything upfront. You wouldnt dream of opening a physical shop without investing something on basic design and fixtures and fittings. Even a simple sandwich business needs a counter or a van and yet people somehow pretend that the Internet is different and that different rules apply i.e. you dont need to invest anything in infrastructure and you certainly dont need to have an advertising budget.
People tend to get so bedazzled by the potential of the Web that they often get deluded into assuming that they can get an awful lot in exchange for very little.
Of course there are examples of Internet tycoons starting off on their kitchen table with no more than an off- the- peg website and a great idea but regrettably these are the exceptions rather than the rule.
This is not to say that you need to spend thousands on developing and promoting your website. While it is still possible to buy internet success by investing millions in site development and advertising ( like the price comparison portals ), smaller businesses can achieve rapid growth in online generated turnover by investing a bit more upfront when they build their site and by setting aside a modest amount for regular web-based advertising.
Simply put, a commercial website put together for under a thousand pounds is likely to look like a bargain basement job. Furthermore, even if you have the most exciting looking site on the Internet, it is not going to earn you a penny if nobody sees it. You therefore have to allow a certain amount even if it is only 50 or 500 a month to get yourself a prime position on the Internet highway where your site will be seen.
Most new entrants into e-commerce dont even know that their marketing / advertising effort starts with the first few lines of their first webpage. This is because the most powerful drivers of prospective customers to a website are the search engines, particularly Google.
Shoppers looking for a particular item or service will almost certainly use a search engine to find what they are looking for and, if they cant see your website, they cant find you!
by: Brendan Wilde
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