Mar 16
What’s in a website?
Life online is now a reality that has conventional retail clammering to get on board. Creating a website once involved learning html (hyper text markup language), a series of codes that instruct a web browser how to behave. These days there are so many more ways that programmers have devised to achieve a result, some more flashier than others. But no matter which one you choose it still comes back to the basics of how you want to present yourself to your customers and potential customers.
Google has a new service which allows you to create a website for your business. It comes with freebies to begin with but in the long run anyone who has been in business for a while knows there’s no such thing as a free lunch and at some point you will have to pay. If you hook into the new service you will then be bombarded with offers from website designers around the world encouraging you to adopt a more professional approach. I guess it doesn’t take a Rhodes scholar to figure out that here is a new avenue for scams.
Your website is a door to your business and it must reflect your image as well as excite and inspire customers to do business with you. This is where going with a website team you can trust and more importantly you can speak to on the phone or in person is invaluable when or if things go pear shape.
The first website you publish is not going to be the ultimate because as you get customer feedback and your business develops so too will your in store displays and thus your website. A good website is constantly changing and maintaining interest. The creative process evolves and that’s why it’s a good idea to have a staff member (out-sourced or in-house) to take care of this aspect. But once again they must be trustworthy because it’s your image – it’s your business!
If you’re going to go to the effort of developing an online presence it’s silly to not post your catalogue and prices. You will lose more sales than gain if you ask online customers to call you when they don’t know whether they can afford to shop with you or not. Even a ball park figure will weed out any time wasters.
Yes, people of all ages are shopping online, comparing prices, but you can win their custom if your approach is right.
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