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Saturday, September 19, 2009
What information should your website include?
There is no one size fits all solution for new businesses when it comes to deciding what content you need to put on your website. Each business is unique and the website needs to be designed to meet the unique needs of your target audience. Thus it is important that you know why you are creating the website and target information content to the primary purpose of the site.
I was recently involved in a series of research studies the looked specifically at the type of content small businesses needed to put on their sites, from a user's perspective. Not surprisingly the studies demonstrated that they type of content varied based on the primary business the company and what the purpose of the site was (Walczak & Gregg 2010, Hasley & Gregg 2008).
Companies that are selling things online must provide accurate, believable product information that includes all "important" product characteristics. For example: ingredients is an important product characteristic for specialty food sites and book reviews are very important for author and other book selling sites. Of course price is important if you are selling things but studies show that including a price can actually be detrimental for higher end service sites (e.g. law firms and medical procedures).
Companies that are using their websites for recruiting or to attract investors also need to have accurate believable information but they need to include additional corporate information that is not required for sales only sites.
Regardless of what you are using your website for you need to realize that content is king, so make sure all of the information on your site is accurate, believable and up to date.
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I was recently involved in a series of research studies the looked specifically at the type of content small businesses needed to put on their sites, from a user's perspective. Not surprisingly the studies demonstrated that they type of content varied based on the primary business the company and what the purpose of the site was (Walczak & Gregg 2010, Hasley & Gregg 2008).
Companies that are selling things online must provide accurate, believable product information that includes all "important" product characteristics. For example: ingredients is an important product characteristic for specialty food sites and book reviews are very important for author and other book selling sites. Of course price is important if you are selling things but studies show that including a price can actually be detrimental for higher end service sites (e.g. law firms and medical procedures).
Companies that are using their websites for recruiting or to attract investors also need to have accurate believable information but they need to include additional corporate information that is not required for sales only sites.
Regardless of what you are using your website for you need to realize that content is king, so make sure all of the information on your site is accurate, believable and up to date.
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- S. Walczak and D. Gregg, "Factors Influencing Corporate Online Identity: A New Paradigm," forthcoming Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 2009/2010.
- J.P. Hasley and D. Gregg "Understanding and Managing Web Site Information Content: The WICS Method," Working Paper, July 2008.
Labels: design, research, website tips
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Your website and your credibility
Your website is important, essentially it defines who you are and how you ae perceived both online and offline by your customers, partners and investors. Often the first impression you make online may be to only impression your company ever has a chance to make!
A couple of years ago I conducted a research study that tried to assess the impact of a positive Web image or identity on business success. I wanted to look at what impact changing the look and information on a businesses' website had on the money they made and on customers overall trust in the company (Gregg & Walczak 2008).
What we did to look at this question was created two distinct eBay businesses with different web page designs and user ids. These two businesses sold identical items in parallel over a period of one year and we compared user willingness to transact, and prices received by the two businesses. Even though both of the businesses started as brand new businesses (think entrepreneurs) on eBay (with zero ratings), the two sellers presentend themselves very differently. One of the sellers (collegiatesales) presented themselves as a professional seller with an attractive acution listing, return policies and contact information. The other seller (notapro2003) presented themselves as a casual seller with a minimum listing.
The 2 seller identities sold 45 pairs of items (new & used cinema DVDs, new jump drives, used zip drives) at the same time so that they would appear next to each other in the listings and therefore have similar competition. We handled shipping identically for both sellers (shipped as soon as payment arrived). The starting price, shipping costs, and auction duration were kept uniform for all concurrent sales.
In the end both seller identities ended up with a seller rating of 39, with 100% positive feedback and similar comments. However that is where the similarity ended. The more professional seller received 20% more bids than the casual seller and received their first bid an average of 1.26 days sooner. In addition, the more professional seller received significantly more money for their items especially for used (riskier) items (38%).
In the end, auction buyers demonstrated that they preferred transacting with the seller whose listing "looked better" even if that meant they had to spend a little more to do so. That goes against the primary reason I think people go to auction sites in the first place - which is to get good deals. But in the end, it is not sufficient to just get a good deal, you also have to get the product you pay for.
New entrepreneurs face a similar challenge. The need to convince potential customers that they are capable of providing a quality good or service even if you never heard of them before. The results of this research suggest that investing in a high quality website is one way these new companies can help build credibility and trust with future customers!
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D. Gregg and S. Walczak, "Dressing Your Online Auction Business For Success: An Experiment Comparing Two E-Bay Businesses," MIS Quarterly, 32(3), September 2008, pp. 653-670.
A couple of years ago I conducted a research study that tried to assess the impact of a positive Web image or identity on business success. I wanted to look at what impact changing the look and information on a businesses' website had on the money they made and on customers overall trust in the company (Gregg & Walczak 2008).
What we did to look at this question was created two distinct eBay businesses with different web page designs and user ids. These two businesses sold identical items in parallel over a period of one year and we compared user willingness to transact, and prices received by the two businesses. Even though both of the businesses started as brand new businesses (think entrepreneurs) on eBay (with zero ratings), the two sellers presentend themselves very differently. One of the sellers (collegiatesales) presented themselves as a professional seller with an attractive acution listing, return policies and contact information. The other seller (notapro2003) presented themselves as a casual seller with a minimum listing.
The 2 seller identities sold 45 pairs of items (new & used cinema DVDs, new jump drives, used zip drives) at the same time so that they would appear next to each other in the listings and therefore have similar competition. We handled shipping identically for both sellers (shipped as soon as payment arrived). The starting price, shipping costs, and auction duration were kept uniform for all concurrent sales.
In the end both seller identities ended up with a seller rating of 39, with 100% positive feedback and similar comments. However that is where the similarity ended. The more professional seller received 20% more bids than the casual seller and received their first bid an average of 1.26 days sooner. In addition, the more professional seller received significantly more money for their items especially for used (riskier) items (38%).
In the end, auction buyers demonstrated that they preferred transacting with the seller whose listing "looked better" even if that meant they had to spend a little more to do so. That goes against the primary reason I think people go to auction sites in the first place - which is to get good deals. But in the end, it is not sufficient to just get a good deal, you also have to get the product you pay for.
New entrepreneurs face a similar challenge. The need to convince potential customers that they are capable of providing a quality good or service even if you never heard of them before. The results of this research suggest that investing in a high quality website is one way these new companies can help build credibility and trust with future customers!
-----------------------------------------------
D. Gregg and S. Walczak, "Dressing Your Online Auction Business For Success: An Experiment Comparing Two E-Bay Businesses," MIS Quarterly, 32(3), September 2008, pp. 653-670.
Labels: credibility, research, website