[thelist] What makes a good e-commerce website?
Luther, Ron
ron.luther at hp.com
Wed Feb 2 07:23:39 CST 2005
Tim Burgan asked:
>>I'm asking from the point of view of:
>>what features should our e-commerce application have.
Hi Tim,
(I usually keep my nose out of the e-commerce questions, but I'm
gonna wade in here anyway.)
I think it depends on your product ...
* If you are selling 'digital wares'; MP3s, software, pdfs of research
reports, videos, etc ... then you may want the ability to generate
a 'one time use' password ... thats a need you wouldn't have if you
were selling sweaters.
* If you are selling pre-packaged goods such as 'coffee cups' ... then
you may not need extensive flexibility in allowing the user to specify
'features' such as 'size', 'color', 'leather seats', 'AM/FM/CD player'.
* If you were selling 'usage for on-line gaming'; "1 hour of 'Frag XII' ",
"4 hours of 'Quarter Life IV' " ... then you might need features for
tracking that usage, popping up 'special deal' ads, etc.
I think it depends on your clientele ...
* You may want a whole bunch of nice features to manage a 'profile'
if 90% of your business is repear customers ... otherwise you might
not care about extensive flexibility for these features.
But, most of all, I also think it depends how well you need to integrate
your site with the remaining corporate systems ... if you are selling
manufactured goods, then you may need to link in to MRP, Order Promising,
Inventory, etc. ... Does the site need to feed a legacy invoicing system?
Does it need to receive and comprehend '856 signals' from your carriers?
Do you need extensive 'management reporting' capabilities?
If so, then a system with fewer front-end 'e-features' and better
back-end integration capabilities may be a better fit.
I don't think it's a 'one size fits all' question ... I think you need
to understand _your_ business requirements ... and know which ones are
'critical' and which are 'nice to have' ... I don't think we can
do that for you. You may need to go back to your 'biz' folks and
make them work -- (OMG!) -- explaining to you, at great length and
detail, exactly what their requirements and expectations are for this
new system. If you don't know what the goals are, then you can't
measure, and proclaim, your 'success'.
HTH,
RonL.
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