Electronic Retailing

Page 6/8

Webpage Creation, continued

Designing your own Web site

Advantages	Disadvantages

Customization limited only by your time and financial resources Unlimited, free and instant site updates Wealth of software and design support available on the Internet	Time invested in learning software and Internet marketing techniques Time invested in designing site Time invested in troubleshooting and updating Money invested in purchasing web and image design software Money invested in purchasing or upgrading computers, digital cameras or scanners
Unless you are already tech saavy, be realistic here. Do you have the time to add "Web designer" to your resume? Many smaller etailers get their start using a selling service like eBay®. Once they build their capacity and gain experience with things like shipping fees, and customer likes/dislikes, they decide to take the next step to their own etail site. Click on the "Learn and Interact" icon to the right to read some common-sense instructions for beginners.

No matter which option that you decide is right for you, remember that even if your etail site undergoes many redesigns, constantly changing URLs can make it harder for search engines to send you customers, because there is no consistency and trust over time. Another wise suggestion is to carefully test the Web site with a small pilot group of actual customers before you go live.

Page 6/8

These materials were developed as part of the Southern Rural Development Center’s Nationall e-Commerce Extension Initiative. They are based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Award No. 2005-45064-03212

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Southern Rural Development Center.