Step 4: Web Site

Even if you don’t have any immediate plans to sell goods across the Internet, most companies are now expected to have a web site that details their business, products, market areas, and relevant information. Potential clients, partners and suppliers all tend to review a web site before even discussing the possibility to doing business with you. Even if taking orders online is not relevant to your business, your web site is an essential part of the e-Business.

A good web site replaces the need for glossy brochures, thus saving money, and is updated regularly, ensuring information is always up to date. If you are going to create a web site, however, be committed. This is not a one off venture that you revisit every year or so – the approach that many businesses have to their corporate brochures and sales information. You need to promote the site, provide an option for visitors to e-mail for further information and ensure those e-mails are regularly read and acted upon, otherwise you risk alienating potential customers and business partners alike. Most critical is to ensure that the information on products and services, prices and availability is accurate and up to date.

Of course, it is possible to take your web site a stage further and use it to sell your products online, taking payment for orders directly through the site. However, it is rare that a composite fabricator’s products would be suitable for sale online as they are typically large and customised, although there may be exceptions when the fabricator has their own direct route to a high-volume consumer market (sporting goods, for example). For the rest of the composites supply chain there are a number of opportunities for selling online, including machine spares, small quantities of materials or educational products. In online selling, customers can use your web site to find out about your products, order them, receive confirmation of the order and delivery times, pay for the goods and then receive follow up customer service interaction, creating a smoother, more tailored and efficient transaction.

Even if your customers don't actually place the final order through your web site, large proportions of today’s purchases are heavily influenced by what potential clients learn online. Make sure your corporate site is rich in content and well-designed.

Gordon Bishop, NetComposites. First Published in Reinforced Plastics