Executive Summary
The aim of this project is to present a website proposal for a local small business by explaining that how a website can help a business in the attainment of its goals. The business that has been selected for the project is the “local computer repair shop”. The business model of the shop is B2C, and the internet business model that has been selected is advertising business model. The advantage of building website for the business is that it will serve the shop as marketing and selling point. Business can use the website for promotion of its services, attracting customers, and building good relations with them. The website will allow shop person and customers to do two-way communication through the option of chatting available on the website. Some software and hardware will be required for the creation of a website that has been mentioned in the paper.
Internet business model
There are three major sorts of business models that can be adapted by the organizations include business-to-business (B2B) internet business model, business to consumer (B2C) model, and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) model. The computer repair shop has business to consumer (B2C) model as it allows the business to communicate its services to customers and market directly. Further, the ways in which businesses work on websites can be divided into nine categories. For example, the brokerage business model, advertising business model, infomediary model, merchant model, manufacturer model, affiliate model, and utility model. It has been decided to apply advertising internet business model for the computer repair shop, as it is the best model to apply. Advertising internet business model will serve the shop with the opportunity to communicate the shop services and benefits of having the service of the computer repair shop to people. The shop will be able to attract customers through providing content regarding the services provided to people and discount offered. According to this model, the website will offer services to the company as well as IM, email, and blogs. Even the company or shop can advertise its messages in the shape of banners (Van Zanten, 2011; Chew & Gottschalk, 2012). In this way, the business will be able to communicate with its customers directly.
Benefits of website and functions a website should perform
The business world has become more advanced and competitive than ever; people prefer the internet for searching best services. Having website can have several advantages to the computer repair shop. For example, for making the business successful it is essential that people have awareness regarding the services provided by the organization and the advantages people will gain in return of purchasing its services. However, the traditional ways of advertising are expensive, and a local computer repair shop does not afford such huge expenses. Therefore, the website is the best way to promote a business as the shop will have greater access to the targeted audience. Without spending much amount, a business can advertise its services to multiple customers.
The website will allow customers to have the knowledge about the services and rates ion which service is provided they do not need to drive a car to come at the shop for giving information. Comments of customers on the website blog will attract potential customers. The shop in this way will gain popularity; most of the time businesses lost customers because of the early closing or because customers do not find the time to gather information. The website does not have such issue; people can visit the website anytime for the information. Website will enable the shop to build good relation with customers through sending them valuable messages; a website will give a business opportunity to prove its credibility and generate trust that ultimately will lead to increased sales (main objective of the business).
Functions a website should perform
A website must perform a function of marketing. It should tell customers that why the company exists, it should increase the sale by telling people that how they can solve their problems without spending much (example, rather a buying a new computer just replace the old part with new one and get the advantage of new PC or laptop). The website should provide support to customers by guiding them that how they can gain services of shop and contact or find the shop (Judd-Pennie, 2014).
Company’s usage of internet for its own benefits
The shop can use the internet to gather data about customers and improve its services. The company can use the customer feedback for overcoming the weaknesses and exploiting the opportunities. This will improve the customer base of the company and its sales as well.
Functional specifications for website
A website should serve the company as a marketing agency, it should have information regarding the services of the company, how the company is different from others, what are the prices of services. The website should include the blog that presents the experiences of the customer with the shop, as it will help in attracting more customers. The website should provide support to customers in contacting the company and should provide the opportunity to discuss the problem with an online agent (See Appendix).
Technological specification for website creation
The required technologies for the website will include AJAX, ASAP, SQL, JavaScript, FTP, PHP, OSGI, PSGI, Ruby, CMS (Quora, 2015). Hardware that will be required includes a hard disk, RAM, and hardware server.
References
Chew, E. K., & Gottschalk, P. (2012). Knowledge Driven Service Innovation and Management: IT Strategies for USA: IGI Global.
Judd-Pennie, K. (2014). 5 Essential Functions Your Website Must Perform. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140919165423-41443043-5-essential-functions-your-website-must-perform>
Quora. (2015). What technology should I use for building my website and what are the best resources for it?. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from <https://www.quora.com/What-technology-should-I-use-for-building-my-website-and-what-are-the-best-resources-for-it>
Van Zanten, B. V. (2011). The 9 types of online business models; which one do you use?. TNW. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from <http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2011/05/25/the-9-types-of-online-business-models-which-one-do-you-use/#gref>
Appendix
Source: http://www.inspirefirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/83.jpg
Source: https://cdn.livechatinc.com/website/uploads/2015/03/custom-logo-chat-window.jpg
