Capitalize on each stage of your website’s evolution

Many companies cannot afford to implement a fully functional eCommerce website. They either don’t have the financial resources immediately available or they haven’t made the organizational changes to support their strategy (changing workflow processes, training and/or hiring staff).

This doesn’t mean however, that their businesses can’t benefit from their websites while they’re gearing towards eCommerce. I suggest we take a look at the different “stages of maturity” of websites, at what they mean from a business perspective, and the benefits organizations can expect from them.

First, let me remind you of the intrinsic advantages of using the Internet, whatever the stage of evolution of a website.

By default, a very basic website offers these following intrinsic advantages:

• 24/7 online availability. This means that any information or online services you have on your website will serve your business effortlessly at any time. For example, anyone can send you an enquiry at any time of the day or night, from anywhere in the world, just through a link to your email.

• Instant worldwide access to your business. This means that you can operate your business from the most remote village in the most remote country on the planet, as long has you have a website and a phone line, people from all over the world will be able to find your contact information and reach you. It also means that you can be contacted from the same level of remoteness. This of course broadens your reach to almost anybody with an Internet connexion in the world (no less than that).

• Almost costless exchange of information worldwide through email. Think about what a fax message would cost you to send overseas or to a neighboring country.

There are generally 3 recognized stages of maturity for websites.

1. The informational stage. Informational websites mainly display information on products and services, a list of clients and testimonials, FAQ, contact and location information, etc. From an eCommerce perspective, an online product catalogue (without the possibility of ordering) would fall into this category. This is usually the first and most common stage of website development.

• The business focus (or goal) of this stage is: brand awareness
• The means to achieve the business goal are: through content
• The return on investment (ROI) usually is: brand awareness and more customer inquiries

2. The interactive stage. Interactive websites offers features that allow online visitors to interact with the website through features such as forums or bulletin boards, newsletter registration, contests, polls, filling in forms (such as a request for quotations, sending a page to a friend, posting reviews and ratings (a very popular eCommerce feature), etc. These tools are called interactive because they require an action from the visitors and that as a consequence they become more involved in the online experience of the website.

• The business focus (or goal) of this stage is: engaging the online customer
• The means to achieve the business goal are: through feedback (or the request for feedback from the owners)
• The return on investment (ROI) usually is: brand loyalty through customer satisfaction, product and service quality enhancement through customer feedback

3. The transactional stage. Transactional websites enable their customers to buy products or services online. After the transaction goes through, customers can access the service (such as accessing paid content or a movie for example) or the products (such as DVDs, downloadable documents, concert tickets, etc.). These websites usually have functionalities such as an online shopping cart and an online payment gateway.

• The business focus (or goal) of this stage is: online sales
• The means to achieve the business goal are: through fulfillment
• The return on investment (ROI) is: increase in sales through a broader market reach and increased profitability through lower costs in selling goods and services (especially for retailers who bare the costs of brick and mortar stores)

Understanding these stages and their potential benefits should give you the means to setup a roadmap for developing your online strategy and plan the investments and organizational changes in phases while still taking advantage of each intermediate stage.