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Case studies

The $20,000 e-Commerce Website

Frankly I don't know if this is a good deal or a bad deal. I don't know if the site will make money - I hope so, they are my friends. My interest is in the professionalism of the site builder and what they got for their money.

They paid the web designer $15,000.  I estimate the company spent $5,000 internally interviewing web designers, negotiating, meeting, supplying content, testing, learning/training on new processes and procedures.

About the Company who bought the site

• Small manufacturing company that sells to professionals rather than consumers.

• Manufactures own brands and privately labeled products, distributes a limited number of other products.

• Catalog includes about 110 products some of which come in a variety of colors and quantities.

• On-line catalog matches the paper catalog.

What they got:

Nice catalog site. Based on my surfing this site is way above average.

• Good performance considering the number of pictures. The pictures are small, attractive and don't really get in the way.

• The company must qualify buyers. Potential customers must register via a form. After qualification buyers get a password that allows them to see prices and purchase products.

• Credit card ordering.

• Shopping cart.

• Shipping times chart.

• Nice pictures of products and happy customers were reused from paper catalog.

Pages they got:

• Home page.

• Order online page - is a logon / registration page.

• Customer service page with phone, email etc.

• Time in transit page which shows shipping zones.

• An "about the company" page.

• A newsletter page.

• A page for product safety bulletins.

• A Contact page with an email address and an "over-the-top" contact form that requires name, business name and address.

• Shopping cart, place order, enter credit card, thanks for your order pages. (I couldn't see these pages.)

• Browse products - all surfers can see these. This page has links to:

• 10 separate product group pages by product category. Each group pages lists from 3 to 20 products.

• Each product links to  an individual pop-up page with a picture and a link to:

  • A pricing page / add to cart page, seen only by registered customers.

Don't know if they got:

• Remember what I've ordered on the web?

• A nice, personalized experience for registered/qualified customers?

What I would have expected the site builder to do (without charging extra) that they didn't do.

• Use magic cookies to remember the customer.

• Use clear navigation tips that tell me where I am, where I've been, and how to get home. They didn't do it consistently. For example, you can always get "home" by clicking the company's logo but there is nothing that tells you that you are on the home page. Nor is there an explicit "home" menu button. Once the site was designed and built, changing navigation features may be difficult and expensive. The site builder should have done better.

• A site-wide search - there is no search at all. Again adding a search now could damage the site design.

• Don't hide the fact that you could order by phone, mail, or in person, and that you can get a paper catalog if you like.

• Never break the back link. The back link breaks if you click on a price link but are not registered. When this happens, you are sent to the login screen from which the back button breaks. (The menu is still there so you are not really stuck.)

• Avoid frames.

• Offer a forum that allows their online community to comment, review, or suggest ways of using the products. That is, take advantage of the knowledge in the user community. This creates stickiness by creating extra value for the customer. It's like customer book reviews on Amazon.com.

What would be nice but should cost extra:

• An interface with manufacturing, accounting, inventory, shipping, invoicing systems.

• Site not only remembers customer, but also the customer's order history, order status, shipping status, etc. not just for web orders but also for all orders.

Marketing the site:

• Should they register with search engines?  Problem is that qualifying customers takes staff time.

• Telling existing customers about the site in every way possible.

• Getting free or paid for links from related pages such as trade magazines and trade associations.

• Buying email or direct mail lists of potential customers.

• Offer incentive for web ordering.

• Possibility for and consequences of international orders and shipments.

• Provide a forum that builds an online community.

How can the site make money?

• As is, web orders, except for credit card verification, does not save any clerical time.

• Customers must be qualified manually

• Employees must periodically download orders.

• Employees must re-key orders into existing MRP system.

• Employees may need to contact the customer about questionable orders (Did you want 12 bottles or 12 cases?)

• Even if existing customers all switch to web ordering, the company cannot reduce staff.

• So, website my be able to reduce the cost of distributing the paper catalog.

• The website must increase sales:

• Attract customers via nation wide 24/7 service.

• Attract customers who like to order via the web

• Partner with related on-line business to create vertical portals for customers

• Attract by allowing the community to contribute knowledge - Collaborative Commerce 

• Attract via web ordering promotions.

• Attract by keeping catalog and pricing up to date.

• Creating a spam that provide valuable information to customers and potential customers.

• Add partner's products to the website.  (Be a portal)

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