BUSINESS FORUM: DOT-COM BUST ASIDE, WEB IS HERE TO STAY
By Tom Niccum, President, Lancet Software
When an economic bubble eventually bursts, its demise leaves much more than a soapy residue.
But bubbles also portend economic energy. Dutch tulips, the Internet bubble of the 1600s, nonetheless became a significant contributor to the Dutch economy.
While the Internet was subject to a similar hype, it also has become an integral part of our national business infrastructure and will remain so for many years.
Indeed, early returns this Christmas shopping season have found that Internet retailers are seeing sharp jumps in activity. The Nielsen/Net
Ratings survey found that virtual department stores, in particular, saw big gains on the day after Thanksgiving. Amazon.com had 1.69 million visitors on Nov. 23, 32 percent more than the previous Friday; Wal-Mart Stores, with 355,000 visitors, was up 132 percent; and Target, with 227,000 visitors, jumped 152 percent.
The good news for software developers - based on a recent survey of Twin Cities Web sites we conducted - is that there appears to be a lot of work left to do. For businesses contemplating their Internet presence, there are plenty of easy improvements that can be made to nearly all Web sites. The death of dot-com speculation has left us with many skilled Web site creators do the work - and at lower prices.
This fall, Lancet Software conducted a survey of 898 Web sites in the Twin Cities industries of manufacturing, retail and wholesale businesses with annual sales between $25 million and $500 million. We were surprised by what we found, from easy Web-site accessibility to sophisticated functionality - or the lack thereof.
IN SEARCH OF SITES
We used standard Internet search engines to find each company's Web site, and we tried several search strategies. Using this approach, we failed to find about 175 (or 19 percent) of the companies that did have Web sites. This means their intended audience can't find them easily, either. We called each of these companies and got their Web address (if they had one).
Another 18 percent had no Web presence at all. This seems contrary to the popular belief that every business venture from the Avon lady down the street to Best Buy has a Web site.
About 5 percent of the Web sites we found were malfunctioning, displayed an "under construction" graphic, or consisted of just one page that listed the company's name and address - too limited in our opinion to be classified as a Web site.
We placed the approximately 690 remaining functional Web sites into three categories:
- Brochure sites
Those containing basic information about a company's products or services; these accounted for 63 percent of the functional sites. - Catalog sites
Those that have enough information to make purchasing decisions but do not allow online purchasing; accounted for 24 percent of the sites. - E-commerce sites
Those that allow full purchase and payment to take place via the Internet; accounted for 13 percent of the sites.
We further ranked the quality of the sites on a scale of 1 to 5, with a score of 1 indicating a very simple site that we felt could be reproduced in a few days of effort, and a score of 5 indicating a sophisticated site that would make any company proud.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Far fewer companies than we expected are using the Internet to do anything beyond display an electronic billboard. And many aren't even doing a very good job at that (34 percent of sites were brochure sites that rated only a 1 or 2 quality rating). Only 9 percent had e-commerce sites with a 3 or better quality rating.
Most sites contain brochures for products, and many have beautiful graphics. But few provide content that would entice a customer to pay repeat visits.
Unless you are BMW and can hire Ang Lee to make digital films for you, this takes current, relevant content that is valuable to the audience that you want to attract - not just electronic versions of your sales and marketing materials.
The best sites offer online product manuals, case studies of how products are used by other customers, discussion boards, troubleshooting guides and educational materials. Of course, all of this information must be kept current - not just the company's four-year history of press releases.
WHAT IT TAKES
One example of a site that got a 5 rating in quality is Magnetic Poetry's (http://www.magneticpoetry.com).
This is a simple site with items that will attract and continue to attract visitors. (Magnetic Poetry, by the way, is not a Lancet client.) Here is why we feel the site merited the highest rating:
- The navigation is simple and intuitive.
- You can order any of the company's numerous products from the site.
- You can actually "play" with the kits online before ordering.
- Users can submit their own poems created with the kits and read the work of others.
- There are downloadable handbooks for educators on how to integrate the products into educational settings.
- The site addresses multiple sales and marketing channels - consumers, retailers and media.
A company's Internet presence should support and enhance its sales and marketing message. But as our survey shows, few companies appear to appreciate that the Internet is different from every other mass medium. It is demand-driven, rather than broadcast-driven via television, radio or print to a passive audience. People have to be looking for your site, be able to find it easily and, once there, want to use the site and visit it again.
In order to get the right audience, and more importantly, get them to return, a Web site must offer something of real value, preferably something that is related to the products or services that the company offers.
The ability to order online is a value to some customers. Others may benefit simply from industry news, or a comprehensive collection of industry-specific links, technical tips, interactive customer service, specialty calculators for common industry formulas - the list goes on. A side benefit of this valuable, industry-specific content is that many Internet search engines will use it to find a site and move it up in the rankings.
We have barely scratched the surface on ways that companies can make use of the Internet. Internet development skills proliferated during the boom era, and now that we're on the "bust" side of the cycle, those skills can be acquired at substantial discounts over what they cost just a few months ago.
Like tulips, the Internet is here to stay, and like those Dutch favorites, successfully harvesting the value of the Internet will take continuous investment, time and attention to produce a valuable result.
We hope that this time it will be done with a lot less fertilizer.