Assignment 2 (How to build a website for small retailer)

Source: http://www.websitesforretailers.com/create-a-web-site.htm

Step 1: Determine Your Web Site's Goals

The goal of the website must be clear in order to start creating one, for example: the retail shop wanted to create a website to promote their product only, not doing online purchasing, thus the design and content don’t need to be complex and equipped with chart. If the retailer is not clear with the goal, the web building process will get mixed up and not efficient and effective.

Step 2: Register Your Domain Name

The registration of the domain name should also be corresponded with the goal, for the example above then the name should be: www. Retailername.com if possible but if not then using longer name like: www.retailname-catalogue.com is not really well as it is too long, so it is better to seek for www.retailname.net or other easy-to-remember name.

Step 3: Choose a Web Host

Again, this step must go according to the goal and matching the criteria set in the goal. The specification of the web host must go according to the design and content, as for example:

· Space to create one or 50 Web pages within your site

· Multiple Email addresses in your account

· Templates that make creating a site quick and easy

· The option to add a blog that complements your site

· A shopping cart to transact sales

· Satisfactory service

· The ability to make changes to your site as often as required

· Plus more perks that make easy work of maintaining your Internet space.

Step 4: Get Your Staff Involved

By involve is meant to get ideas and input from staffs about the site that will be developed, because they are the users and if the users has got no idea of what will be developed, then the web will be useless when they can not or lazy to operate. (And do it down to top)

After the site is published they have new responsibility to maintain, to watch for comments, emails, suggestions, and feedbacks. Staff’s involvement is one of the important things to be considered as if the site is neglected then no one will attempt to access it. Update of the product and improvement to the web should also be considered important to keep customer visiting the web.

Step 5: Security

This is the last but not least step to build a website, but this is considered the most important step to be done. To prevent the site to get contaminated, the security of the web should be prioritized and to give security to online purchaser, consider cooperating with finance institutions: banks, Credit card merchants, or financial intermediaries.

Step 6: Launch Your Web Site

Before launching the website, it is better to check all the contents that when launched will not contain any errors which will raise the inconveniency of the visitors. Make sure also that the site is well advertised because one of the key success to the website is the number of visitors.

Main issue	Detail
Which types of e-business applications do we develop?	e.g Secure online ordering, CRM, SCM
Which technologies do we use?	e.g. email, web-based ordering, EDI
How do we achieve quality of service in applications?	e.g Requirements are: security, speed, availability and errors
Where do we host applications?	e.g Small retailers is suggested to take cheaper offers
Application integration	e.g B2B exchange with suppliers
Which access platforms do we support?	e.g. Mobile access
Which development technologies and standards do we use?	e.g. .NET, PHP, web 2.0
How do we manage content and data quality?	e.g update when new products come, update when new promotion introduced
How do we manage employee access to the Internet?	e.g Limited to once every two hours
How do we secure data?	e.g always keep backup and request for webhoster to provide extra space to perform backup once in a month