Know the benefits of an online presence Essay Example for Free

Know the benefits of an online presence Essay In this assignment I have to identify and describe five principal benefits that businesses gain by having a simple online presence. Remote locations The internet is a boon to anyone who lives miles away from a main shopping centre because they can simply select the items they want and order them online. This is vastly increases the choice of goods and services available to someone who lives in the highlands and Islands of Scotland for example. Customers with travel difficulties Even people who live in urban areas may not be able to get around as easily as they would wish from mothers with young babies to the elderly. In this case, it is far more convenient to buy online particularly when the whether is bad. Poor transport links In many rural areas bus services are very limited and train services may be non-existent or mainly available during the rush hour. Whilst it may be worthwhile taking a long or tedious journey on a special occasion, most people would prefer to make routine purchases quickly and easily online. Marketing Benefits Marketing benefits relate to those gains a business makes in a relation to knowing more than its customers, being able to target its products, services ad the website itself to meet Their needs. This will also make there company well known to other foreign countries and will be willing to do a transaction knowing of there prestige Compete with competitors The aim here is to prevent competitors getting online edge. This may be improving on the products, or services offered, the speed of delivery, the cost of delivery and/or constantly reviewing the style and design of the website itself to utilize new technological developments. It is quicker and easier to understand and compare competitor activities online than by visiting their stores or obtaining information on their products and services offline. Market research There are several ways in which organizations can obtain information from users of its website methods which you can do this is Through log files and cookies both log files and cookies collect information on site usage and provide valuable marketing information. Users can set their browsers not to accept cookies and not al sites have these. Every site, though, produces log files. These are the data records created by the web server that hosts the site Website activity software provides more detailed analysis of the log files than ISP would provide. Subscribers can find out which search engines drive traffic to the site, which pages are the most popular and particular page, that might be significant. Online Market Research this can range from a small pop-up questionnaire that asks a user to assess their online experience to comprehensive customer survey sent by an e-mail to registered users of the site or to volunteers who have agreed to form an online focus group. Rapidity of response to customer interest A web presence provides the opportunity to respond quickly to customers but not all firms take advantage of this. A website can provide several opportunities for customer contact, such as call me buttons and e-mail messages, but speed of response is vital Research has shown that internet users expect a faster response than customers who enquire by telephone or letter.