Development Strategies for E-Commerce Sites
With the advances in technology came advances in the way companies did business online. For many companies, it has taken a fairly short amount of time to adapt to these changes, but for those getting started online it can be difficult updating the site as well as performing other business operations.
Some companies have chosen to desing their Web sites themselves, but most have resorted to outsourcing the creation of the Web site and they just update it as needed. This is known as early outsourcing since the company is able to focus on getting the right people together to maintain the site once finished.
Some companies decide to setup their site, then outsource the maintenance of the site. This is known as late outsourcing, and is the lesser of the two options.
A third option is called partial outsourcing, in which a company designates portions of the site that can be completed by a company that focuses on those functions. Two common examples of this include using PayPal on an e-commerce site and choosing to have the site hosted on a service provider.
When selecting where to host the site, a company needs to look at what the provider offers and make sure it meets or suprasses the requirements for the site. Some of the more important details that companies look at include the "functionality, reliability, bandwith/server availaility, security, backup and disaster recovery, and pricing."
Some ways companies are using partial outsourcing include incubators and fast ventruing.
Incubators are programs that offer a company that is just starting up resources and will invest in the company, then when the business is going strong enough, the incubator will sell most of its stock and invest the money into another company.
Fast venturing is when a business that does not have experience starting up a e-commerce site gets help from another company and the company that is helping out helps develop the site as well as help make it grow very quickly.
Previous Topic: Payments
Planning Initiatives
Managing E-Commerce Implementations
