E-commerce, On-line Shopping, Shopping Baskets - Web Design Services

E-commerce is about using the internet to buy and sell goods and services online. Current figures have shown the following:

£46.6bn was spent online during 2007 (IMRG, January 2008)
21.3m people now shop online in the UK, spending an average of £661 each in the last six months (BMRB, August 2008)
By 2011 32m UK consumers will be shopping online. The value of goods they buy online in 2011 will add up to almost £52bn. (Forrester, UK eCommerce Forecast 2006-2011, March 2007)

Obviously these figures do not tell the whole story – some industries have been quicker to adopt e-commerce than others and some firms have benefited more than others. What is certain, though, is that e-commerce represents a real opportunity for businesses to find new markets and serve existing customers more efficiently.

The Benefits of an E-commerce Website

An E-commerce website offers enormous potential benefits to businesses, whatever their size. The benefits include:

Access to a global market – the internet allows businesses access to a huge market of potential customers worldwide.
Cutting out the middleman – businesses can sell directly to end-users.
A level playing field – a small business can show itself to be as professional and credible as its larger competitors.
24-hour business – with a website that accepts payments online, you are always open for business to customers even if your office is closed.
Greater customer satisfaction – an e-commerce website can be a powerful tool for building customer loyalty. A well-designed website puts the customer in charge of the relationship – they can buy, browse, ask for help or track the progress of their order when they want.
Reduced marketing costs – word of mouth can be incredibly powerful on the web through e-mail recommendations and search engine rankings. You can achieve a great deal through organic growth by treating customers well, keeping them informed about your activities and benchmarking yourself against competitors.
Better customer information – giving online customers passwords to your website saves them having to re-enter their details every time they shop. But it also gives you information about buying habits to refine your marketing, pricing and purchasing strategies.
Streamlined business processes – increasingly companies are integrating their business processes. Orders come in to their website, card details are processed, goods dispatched and stock re-ordered seamlessly, dramatically reducing the cost of each sale.

We typically build bespoke E-commerce websites but if required, perhaps due to budgetary costs and the idea of 'dipping ones toe' into this arena then we will design websites using off-the-shelf software packages. For further information please contact us.

Our range of website design services fall into the following categories, please click on each one to gain further information.

PGL Training is the latest website to be produced by Web Bite Design. PGL Training provide quality training programmes, using the skills of their training delivery staff who are trade specific and hold currency of skill. Their training is designed to ensure that they meet the needs of their customers and they are delighted to be associated with market leading manufacturers.

The East Devon Business Initiative (EDBI) is an innovative and non-profit making networking group launched by a group of experienced East Devon based business people.

The EDBI aim to offer something different and complimentary to other networking groups. The 'keystone' of EDBI is the new EDBI web site (www.edbi.co.uk) coupled with weekly relaxed club meetings. Become friends & colleagues of fellow members and maximise your business growth opportunities via member referrals.

Q. Do we build single page websites?

A. We're still surprised by often we have enquiries about building websites where the customer is looking for a single page website or 'a few pages'.

When was the last time you went to a single page website and felt confident in the company or services that were being promoted? Internet users are a lot more savvy than they used to be and are very unforgiving. They need to be convinced that you are the company or organisation that they need to contact, don't let doubts and questions such as, "What is this company hiding?", "Why aren't they saying more about their products and services?" enter the users mind.

It is absolutely imperative that once you get a new user to your website you keep them there and either encourage them to contact you or to bookmark your website - first impressions count - don't waste yours!

Our aim is to get your company noticed, not just when people search for your name but when they search for your service, as well. We provide a full SEO solution that includes research into how your potential customers might search for your services and what keywords they might use to access your site.

We don’t guarantee first page ranking on Google for every single term – and you should be very wary of SEO companies that do. But we do provide in depth analysis, comprehensive communication and most importantly, impressive results built on the basis of quality content and research.

In Google's Own Words

Make sure that your website offers quality content and services. Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any other SEO factor. Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means.

Organic or word-of-mouth buzz is what helps build your site's reputation with both users and Google, and it rarely comes without quality content.