Day 06: Online Business Processes
Online business processes involves operations and interactions between the business operations and the web-based business systems. Find below the web pages that the online business systems should have.
Homepage – the business face
Home page is the first impression; the face of your online business. It’s the first page that your visitors see when they get into your website. The page makes the difference between navigating the rest of the website or leaving it. It’s like the way you see the shop front and it makes you decide if you want to enter the shop premises or leave for others. The home page should have a summary of your business. It should explain what you are, what you do and how and why you do it. It should explain the following in brief about your business, the products list, the contacts and some photos. Apart from the brief summary of your business and your products, you should have links to the rest of the website pages.
About us Page – Pitch your business
If I ask you to tell us about your business, what would you tell us? This is your business pitch and should go to your About page. This page is you. So develop it as if you are explaining yourself. The About page includes the history of the business (When it was started, how and the dream behind it. Explain how your passion led you to start the business); the business philosophy (The vision, mission, motto or slogan and values. Make it good. Let your customers see the passion that you have). You can also include the business team names and designations, their brief profiles or organization structure. The About page should be about 3 to 4 paragraphs. Make it simple and straight to the point. This page closes the sale.
Portfolio/Testimonial Page – endorse your business
Some businesses, especially the ones in the business to business market require you to showcase a list of past happy customers. This acts as an endorsement. The portfolio page has the list of the happy customers. Also, some customer might have something positive to say about your business. The testimonial page shows this valuable endorsement by your clients.
Product Page(s) – Pitch your Products
If we went ahead and ask you what you are offering, what would you tell us? Your product pitches should be brief and to the point. The content for a product page should have the product name, product description and product image and the product price.
Each product should have its own web page. Then the products pages should be linked into one product catalogue page.
Contact Page – contact the business
You cannot have a complete sales website if you do not have a contact page. In the contact page, you include the telephone number(s), email address, postal address, physical address, website address, a direct mailing form, social media links and a google maps showing your location. This page is used by your customers to get in touch with you or to offer feedback hence it should be easy to identify. It should be one of the main pages in the menu and most probably the last on the right of the menu. This means that it should be linked from every page of your website.
Delivery Page
This page explains your delivery process. The page should contain the delivery areas, the delivery time, mode of delivery, the delivery process, delivery terms and conditions and return policy. The page should just explain everything that a client will want to know about delivery.
Payment Page
This page explains all about the payment of the products. The page should contain the available payment modes, the payment process, the after payment and the refund policy.
Disclaimer Page
This page is very important. It stipulates the terms and conditions that you have put to protect you against any liability that might arise. Running a business comes with its own liabilities. This page ensures that you keep safe. You do not have to think much about this page, you can use a set disclaimer page and just customize it for your own business.
The other important content that you might consider are:
- Your business logo
- Any business facility or activity photos
After setting your business online, an automating the marketing and ordering process, its the high time you take care of the offline and manual process. The next session will discuss about the offline business processes.