Each week I encourage you to add questions to the end of each feedback survey. Here are this week’s questions which we will discuss together in today’s session.
Q1. What percentage of a company’s annual revenue is likely to be through online as opposed to offline?
Q2. Will online stores become more important than offline?
A. Some online stores are already making enormous profits and some formerly high street brands (Woolworths) are now Internet only.
Q3. Do companies take ideas from their competitors in terms of site features?
A. Yes constantly - there are trends that everyone follows: guided navigation, product zoom and soon A/B testing
Q4. Should every site have a store finder?
A. If they have stores, yes!
Q5. How do retailers create shopping baskets in terms of actual code?
A. They don't - they use proper systems and frameworks. But if they did they would search for sample code such as http://whoyouknow.co.uk/php/shop/
Q6. How much does building a site really cost?
A. How long is a piece of string? Small projects cost a few thousands while large projects cost £100,000s to millions a year. As an estimate companies might spend 10-15% of their expected online revenue on building, running and marketing their stores but it could be more.
Q7. How does a developer cost a particular project?
A. Very hard question. Most work on the basis of how long the project will take times the cost of the work. Some will offer a fixed price while some will offer a 'package'.
Sound installation at Vauxhall Ragged School as part of London Open House [Sep 20, 2009]
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This site is an educational resource, a research project and a publication channel written by Jonathan Briggs, Professor of eCommerce at Kingston University. As well as being Professor at Kingston, Jonathan...
