60 Seconds on Business
Gear your Web site to customer desires

By Dr. Drake Beil
President, Solutions Inc.

How much time do you spend just surfing the Internet for fun? Not much, I bet.

If you're like many of the clients and customers I talk with frequently, your time online usually has a purpose. The most frequent purpose mentioned was e-mail and it's estimated more than 30 billion e-mails will be sent this year.

More important, a recent survey showed 62 percent of all Web users say they surf looking specifically for offers and specials on products.

If you have a Web site or are thinking about getting into e-commerce, this is very important.

Here are two tips on building an internet business strategy.

First, don't be concerned about being first with a new technology (like streaming video), be very concerned about giving people what they want.

Second, your product alone will not make your site successful. You need to have great fulfillment processes that keep your costs down and make it cheaper to acquire new customers.

Even more interesting, my findings are that there's over a 200 percent increase in Web site traffic when you combine traditional and online media. You must promote offline to get people online, and when they're integrated, you answer the question, "How can I make this pay off in as many ways as possible?"

Dr. Drake Beil can be reached at drake@60secondsonbusiness.com.