An ecommerce web site is the main tool that internet-based
businesses use to advertise, their products and services, to make
their sales presentation, to close sales, and to process orders
and payments. Every internet-based business doesn’t necessarily
need an ecommerce web site. Whether or not an ecommerce web site
is needed really depends upon the type of business and the
purpose of the website.
To decide what type of website you need for your internet
business, it is useful to learn about the most common types of
websites and their purposes. A very basic website, sometimes
called a static website, is primarily used for advertising or
lead generation purposes. A static website or lead generation
website is a website that aims to generate business leads and
this type of website is commonly used by service companies and
professionals who wish to provide an overview of their business
to attract interest from potential customers.
This type of website, using techniques such as offering free
newsletters, is very good for generating leads as well as
building an opt-in list of potential clients and their contact
information. Building an opt-in list is very useful for email
marketing, direct mail marketing, and even telemarketing.
Sometimes an ecommerce web site also serves as a lead generator
as well as a sales tool.
Another type of website that is commonly used by businesses is a
content site. Content websites serve one or more of three main
purposes – 1) to generate revenue through subscription fees; 2)
to generate revenue from third-party advertising; or 3) to build
a business’s or individual’s credibility. A content site that
aims to attract paid subscribers for the purpose of revenue
generation may need to be an ecommerce web site as well since
there are actually fees involved with the use of the subscription
service. A content site used for the purpose of generating
advertising revenue may or may not need to be an ecommerce web
site.
If you are selling advertising spots on your content website to
third parties, they will need to make payments to order their
advertising space, so ecommerce web site capabilities may be
useful. Sometimes content sites are used to generate advertising
revenue through the use of Google’s AdSense program. Since the
program uses the content of the site to draw in and display
relevant advertisements and the revenue generated is from click-
throughs for the Google ads, an ecommerce web site is not
necessary because the business itself doesn’t actually process
any orders or payments from website visitors.
Sometimes businesses set up a website for the sole purpose of
providing self-serve customer service options. A bank website
where account holders can view their accounts is a good example
of a service website. In most cases, a service website does not
need to be an ecommerce website because it doesn’t handle things
like orders and payments, though it may have self-serve options
that enable customers to transfer funds between accounts or to
make online payments.
The fourth commonly used type of website is an ecommerce web
site. The main purpose of an ecommerce web site is to sell either
products, services or a mix of the two. Since an ecommerce web
site is a sales tool, it generally contains sales copy along with
what is commonly referred to as ecommerce solutions. These
“solutions” that are sometimes used for an ecommerce web site
include online catalogs, shopping carts, and automated order
systems that actually collect orders from customers and process
the payments. Advanced options for an ecommerce web site may
include automated customer service communications such as
delivery of order confirmations and shipping confirmations by
email. Ecommerce web sites may also contain features that are
common to other types of websites.