Executive Tools
- Executive Summary
- Self Assessment Checklist
Expert Practices Articles
- E-Commerce Overview
- Creating a Successful Web Presence
- Creating an Internet Action Plan
- Designing an Effective Web Site
- Marketing Your Web Site
- Implementation Tips
- Working with Outside Vendors
- Security Issues: Building a Safe Web Site
- Measuring Results
- The Top 10 E-Commerce Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
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CEO Best Practice: E-Commerce
Executive Summary
- E-Commerce Overview
- Creating a Successful Web Presence
- Creating an Internet Action Plan
- Designing an Effective Web Site
- Marketing Your Web Site
- Implementation Tips
- Working with Outside Vendors
- Security Issues: Building a Safe Web Site
- Measuring Results
- The Top 10 E-Commerce Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
E-Commerce Overview
Experts predict that by 2003, 500 million people will use the Internet
on a regular basis. By 2004, Internet sales will reach 1.5 trillion
dollars. According to TEC speakers Terry Schulenburg, Ken Sethney
and Ed Taylor, riding this economic wave requires a keen understanding
of how the World Wide Web is reshaping the way we do business.
What's driving the Internet's explosive growth? A remarkable ability
to increase sales and reduce costs while simultaneously enabling
businesses to deliver their products and services in ever-expanding
ways. Even more remarkable is the Internet's ability to change the
face of entire industries.
The Internet has already changed the way many people buy cars,
shop for mortgages, interact with their banks, book travel arrangements
and more. On the business-to-business side, the revolution has just
begun. Industry giants like Wal-Mart and Home Depot are spearheading
an online onslaught that will permanently alter the way companies
and their vendors do business together.
In the future, companies will succeed according to their ability
to use digital technology to streamline business processes and add
value to their customers in ways never imagined before the arrival
of the Internet.
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Creating a Successful Web Presence
The Internet is not about technology. It's about using technology
to solve problems that people can't solve for themselves. Companies
that succeed in establishing a dominant online presence:
- Create a focused Internet plan with very clear timetables, roles
and responsibilities, and expected outcomes.
- Clearly define the expectations for their Web sites.
- Clearly define their target markets.
- Have a strong "pull component," the compelling benefit
that brings people to their Web sites.
- Understand how the Internet differs from every other communication
medium.
- Outsource as much of the technology as possible.
- Measure results.
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Creating an Internet Action Plan
Companies that succeed on the Internet use two types of plans to
accomplish their e-commerce goals: a one-page business plan for
the CEO and a more detailed implementation plan for the project
manager. The business plan should cover five key areas:
- The business problem(s) you intend to solve for your target
market
- Specific goals and objectives for the Web site
- Time frames
- Budget
- Measurement criteria
The implementation plan includes seven essential steps:
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Designing an Effective Web Site
According to our TEC speakers, all great Web sites incorporate
10 fundamental design principles:
- Convenience
- Transparency
- Fulfillment
- Security
- Personalization
- Proactivity
- Timeliness
- Choice
- Interaction
- Focus on content
To provide meaningful content to your Web site audience:
- Establish your corporate power point, the compelling value you
offer that sets you apart from the competition.
- Use the three "Cs" of online copywriting. Create Clear,
Concise and Compelling copy that:
- Tells a story about your product or service
- Focuses on the benefits of using your product or service
- Asks for and entices customers to take action now
- Tells customers what's in it for them if they act right away
- Use attention-grabbing headlines and subheads.
- Allow for plenty of white space.
- Romance the reader.
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Marketing Your Web Site
An effective Web site marketing campaign involves three key elements
-- the proper use of search engines plus online and offline marketing
and promotional tools. To optimize your Web pages for search engines:
- Identify search words that relate to your company/product/service.
- Establish strategic page titles.
- Use hidden search words.
- Use search word density.
- Plan for misspellings.
- Consider multiple entry pages.
- Monitor your search engine ranking.
Online marketing tools include:
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Implementation Tips
To assist your online implementation process, our e-commerce experts
recommend the following:
- Take advantage of the online loyalty factor.
- Don't overlook the "About Us" and "Contact Us"
pages.
- Give online customers as much access to your internal systems
as possible.
- Use your site to educate customers.
- Use e-mail as a customer retention tool.
- Help your employees deal with the technological changes.
- Consider application service providers.
- Communicate eye to eye.
- Get personal.
- Build an online community.
- Deliver real value for a person's time online.
- Reverse-engineer your site.
- Beware of the "Disney distraction."
- Use buttons and text links to simplify site navigation.
- Plan for offline data capture.
- Consider offline follow-up.
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Working with Outside Vendors
Outsourcing the technology (not the strategy) side of e-commerce
offers considerable advantages, including faster time to market,
better use of internal manpower and resources, ability to keep up
with changing technology and avoiding costly mistakes.
When outsourcing:
- Don't hire a vendor/consultant you wouldn't hire as an employee.
- Check references carefully.
- Know the vendor's capabilities.
- Demand transfer of knowledge.
- Understand the two types of bids -- "time and materials"
and "fixed" bids -- including the advantages and disadvantages
of each.
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Security Issues: Building a Safe Web Site
Online security has to do with protecting sensitive information
from online theft. Online privacy has to do with not giving or selling
personal information to third parties. Successful Web sites pay
close attention to both. To guard against the theft of sensitive
information and give your customers a sense of security:
- Store sensitive information on a separate server.
- Have a security/privacy statement.
- Include an "About Us" section to build trust with
your site visitors.
- Offer payment alternatives to people who don't want to use their
credit cards online.
- Outsource the processing of transactions and storage of sensitive
information.
- Use passwords to protect your site.
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Measuring Results
Companies with successful Web sites measure two levels of performance
-- the performance of the site itself and its ability to achieve
e-commerce goals and objectives. Key site performance measures include
things like:
- Unique site visits
- Individual page hits
- Advertising use
- Profiles by city, state, region, country, organization or Web
address
- Activity level by time of day and day of week
- Bandwidth
- Banner ad hits
- How people find out about your site
To measure your e-commerce ROI, ask one simple question: "Is
our Web site making or saving us money?" If so, it's working.
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The Top 10 E-Commerce Mistakes (and How
to Avoid Them)
Beware of these common -- and potentially fatal -- e-commerce
mistakes. (To find out how to avoid them, see "The Top 10 E-Commerce
Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them).")
- Lack of clear goals and objectives
- Giving control of your Web project to an IT manager or Web designer
- Failure to promote your site
- Lack of scalability
- Failure to make it easy to do business with you
- Failure to understand the medium
- Poor site navigation
- Boring content
- Overuse of LUGs (Large Unnecessary Graphics)
- Failure to measure results
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