Blog

Posted by dani cass on February 25th, 2009

When you decide to create a website for your company, you will encounter many decisions regarding the website design and contents; but probably the most important decision is what type of website is best for your business needs.

There are three main types of website, these are brochure sites, catalogue sites and ecommerce websites.

Brochure Sites

A brochure site is perfect if you want a web presence and you want it fast! Ask for a brochure site with Studio 2 Online, and we typically deliver this between 4 to 6 weeks, faster if you take advantage of our FREE website copywriting service.

Yes, you read that right, we will actually complete all the copywriting for your website for you, at NO cost! Writing the content for your website is often the most time consuming part, and most web design agencies expect you, the client, to do it for them or charge you extra for it. However, it isn’t just about the cost or the time, good copy can be the difference between success and failure. When using our in-house copywriter our clients have seen a real difference to the effectiveness of their websites because the copy is written professionally.

Brochure sites are exactly as the title suggests, they are an online brochure telling people about who you are, what you do and the products or services you supply. A brochure site isn’t an eCommerce website, so it isn’t designed to sell products. It is however designed to sell your company and how you can solve the needs of your customers. After all, these days your website is usually the first impression of your company a potential customer, supplier, or future employee will have. 

A brochure site is also a perfect partner for email marketing campaigns, allowing you to link your emails to your website providing further information and allowing you to track what paths visitors are taking through your website. 

These days you need your Brochure site to be updateable by you. This means you can keep your company and product information up to date, adding new information as required. This saves you time and money compared to having to go back to your web agency every time you want to make a change to your website content.

Two brilliant examples of brochure sites are Buffalo Socks and Central Systems.

Catalogue Sites

A catalogue site is an online library of your companies products, very similar to an eCommerce website but without the ability to purchase the items online. Catalogue sites also usually contain the elements of a brochure site but can contain large amounts of pages detailing product information. A catalogue site is perfect for allowing people to view all your products but where you want buyers to order through a call centre or an online order form.

To get the most benefit Catalogue sites should be updateable sites, which allow you to add new products and amend product details as needed.

A great example of a catalogue site is Kookaburra Reader

Ecommerce Websites

eCommerce websites include all of the elements contained in a brochure site and a catalogue site but with the additional benefit of your customers being able to buy the items online. Ecommerce websites link to a ‘payment gateway’ which enables the buyer to make a fully secure payment by credit/debit cards, Paypal, Google checkout or other payment options you can choose for your site.

Ecommerce websites have many advantages over bricks and mortar shops, including the ability to show your whole range of items, 24/7 shopping, lower overheads and opening you up to a worldwide market!

Ecommerce is quickly becoming the major growth area for businesses, even during the recession. Local workwear manufacturer and client of Studio 2 Online, Grahame Gardner, recently reported a significant boost in orders thanks to a rising number of online shoppers. They are one of many online retailers and wholesalers who are cashing-in on the online shopping revolution. The Federation of Small Businesses recently reported online sales growing at an average of 20%. Can you afford to miss out on that type of sales growth?

Ecommerce websites are also updateable websites which means you are able to add new products and amend product/price details. We can even create discount and special offers which can be integrated in to the website. eCommerce websites can also be used to offer customer specific pricing, where a customer can login and view products at their own pricing. You can even restrict the availability of certain products to specific customers, e.g. if you make a specific type of product just for one customer. Another key feature often used on eCommerce websites is “Promotional Codes”. Promotional codes are used to help you track the effictiveness of your marketing. For example if you put an advert in Yellow Pages, you might say “enter code Yell08 to receive free delivery”.

Two brilliant examples of ecommerce sites are Merchant Gourmet and Grahame Gardner

If you would like to discuss the different types of websites available to you in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact Andy on 0845 6187342.

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Web Design Leicester