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Is your website built to last?

By Fiona Ness on Tue 24 February 2015 in Web & eCommerce

If you answered “I don’t know” to that, then the likelihood is some, if not all, of what I’m about to say will sound familiar. But don’t panic yet.

Everyone knows that having a website has become as, if not more, important than having a phone number for most businesses. The thing is, it’s not as simple as just having a website anymore. It needs to look good to catch the attention of your visitors, but more importantly it needs to be functional, you need to give your customers a reason to interact with you online.

We regularly speak to SMEs up and down the country and to be quite frank good looking and functional websites are not something that the majority have mastered yet. Luckily there’s always time to fix it.

Here are our top 3 warning signs that your current website isn’t right for you:

  1. You rely too heavily on your website guy
    If they’re not there for a day then everything comes to a halt. You can’t update static content let alone product or pricing information. Let’s hope something doesn’t actually break and they’re not there, or worse have left the company.
  2. Customers have made noise about their orders not being processed
    When most businesses start selling online they’re just trialling the idea. There’s not a huge investment in any integration for order processing, usually you get an off the shelf site to get up and running online. Although now that your website is being used by the majority of your customers you’ve noticed some big gaps in terms of integration, and so have your customers. Let’s be honest your website guy is probably constantly having to apply fixes. What’s that phrase… ‘You can’t polish a…’?
  3. Your business is limited because of your website
    This comes hand in hand with poor integration. Even though your customers are placing orders online you’re not really sure this is saving you time. Someone is either having to manually process each order, or better but still not ideal, having to upload a spreadsheet at the end of the day. This is an unnecessary hassle for you, but it’s even more annoying for your customers if someone forgets to do their part of the job your customer’s orders become delayed.

Maybe not all of these problems apply to you, but even if just one of them sounds that bit too familiar you shouldn’t ignore it. My point is, your website is the shop window of your business and you should invest carefully in the right areas. Don’t let it become a limiting factor for your business.

ProspectSoft eCommerce offers unparalleled integration, from a dedicated eCommerce team, to Exchequer, Pegasus Opera, Sage 50 and Access Dimensions.

If any of the above sounds familiar, or you want more information about selling online why not get in touch? Alternatively, take a look at our whitepaper to find out how good integration could enhance your businesses performance.

If you already have a website but you’re not sure it’s performing as it should be you should also take a look at our blog ‘3 reasons you’re not getting the return you’d expected from your website’.