Key website factors in e-business strategy

The design of a quality website, as part of e-business strategy, has become a key element for success in the online market. This article analyzes the main factors that must be taken into account when designing a commercial website, concentrating on the Aceros de Hispania company and its business model. We have studied the features which determine website quality: accessibility, speed, navigability, content, and we have calculated the Web Assessment Index (WAI) proposed by Miranda and Banegil [Miranda, F. J., & Banegil, T. M. (2004). Quantitative evaluation of commercial websites: An empirical study of Spanish firms. International Journal of Information Management, 24(4), 313-328]. The results obtained provide several lessons which should be borne in mind when designing a commercial e-strategy. Firstly, it can be observed that Internet popularity and search engine positioning facilitate entry to practically inaccessible markets. Secondly, the navigability makes users feel comfortable and secure when browsing it, which increases the probability of a transaction being completed. Finally, the information provided on the website must be accurate, informative, updated and relevant to customers' requirements. Like Aceros de Hispania, any company, thanks to the Internet, will be able to overcome the barriers which would impede its successful worldwide development in the offline market.

[1]  Mei Cao,et al.  B2C e-commerce web site quality: an empirical examination , 2005, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[2]  Robert Hudson,et al.  Share dealing on the web: a comprehensive review of design specifications across the globe , 2000, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[3]  Lei-da Chen,et al.  Enticing online consumers: an extended technology acceptance perspective , 2002, Inf. Manag..

[4]  Earl R. Babbie,et al.  The practice of social research , 1969 .

[5]  Ephraim R. McLean,et al.  The DeLone and McLean Model of Information Systems Success: A Ten-Year Update , 2003, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[6]  Judy Chuan-Chuan Lin,et al.  Towards an understanding of the behavioural intention to use a web site , 2000, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[7]  Steven Rabin,et al.  Providing A High-Performing Commerce Site , 2001, Inf. Syst. Manag..

[8]  Chechen Liao,et al.  Website practices: A comparison between the top 1000 companies in the US and Taiwan , 2006, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[9]  Kuen-Hee Ju-Pak,et al.  Content dimensions of Web advertising: a cross-national comparison , 1999 .

[10]  Endre Sjøvold,et al.  Success on the Internet - optimizing relationships through the corporate site , 2004, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[11]  Chang Liu,et al.  Exploring the factors associated with Web site success in the context of electronic commerce , 2000, Inf. Manag..

[12]  Bruce D. Weinberg,et al.  Don't keep your Internet customers waiting too long at the (virtual) front door , 2000 .

[13]  Gustavo Rossi,et al.  Specifying Quality Characteristics and Attributes for Websites , 2001, Web Engineering.

[14]  Arno Scharl,et al.  Quantitive evaluation of Web site content and structure , 2000, Internet Res..

[15]  Prashant C. Palvia,et al.  Developing and validating an instrument for measuring user-perceived web quality , 2002, Inf. Manag..

[16]  Eelko K. R. E. Huizingh,et al.  The content and design of web sites: an empirical study , 2000, Inf. Manag..

[17]  M. A. Nour,et al.  A framework for Web marketing strategies : The E-commerce revolution , 2000 .

[18]  C. Ranganathan,et al.  Key dimensions of business-to-consumer web sites , 2002, Inf. Manag..

[19]  Laurel A. Clyde.  A strategic planning approach to Web site management , 2000, Electron. Libr..

[20]  Joel R. Evans,et al.  Business-to-Business Marketing and the World Wide Web: Planning, Managing, and Assessing Web Sites , 1999 .

[21]  Nelson K. H. Tang,et al.  The effectiveness of commercial Internet Web sites: a user's perspective , 1998, Internet Res..

[22]  W. M. Cheung,et al.  An investigation of commercial usage of the World Wide Web: a picture from Singapore , 2002, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[23]  Efraim Turban,et al.  Information Technology for Management , 1995 .

[24]  Vassilis Moustakis,et al.  A Model of Web Site Quality Assessment , 2006 .

[25]  Allan Kuchinsky,et al.  Integrating user-perceived quality into Web server design , 2000, Comput. Networks.

[26]  Xavier Drèze,et al.  Measurement of online visibility and its impact on Internet traffic , 2004 .

[27]  Jonathan W. Palmer,et al.  Web Site Usability, Design, and Performance Metrics , 2002, Inf. Syst. Res..

[28]  Raymond Frost,et al.  Building Effective Web Sites , 2001 .

[29]  Paul Jen-Hwa Hu,et al.  Toward an analytical approach for effective Web site design: A framework for modeling, evaluation and enhancement , 2007, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..

[30]  Adam Fadlalla,et al.  A Framework for Web Marketing Strategies , 2000, Inf. Syst. Manag..

[31]  Hsiu-Fen Lin,et al.  The Impact of Website Quality Dimensions on Customer Satisfaction in the B2C E-commerce Context , 2007 .

[32]  Christo Boshoff,et al.  A Psychometric Assessment of E-S-Qual: A Scale to Measure Electronic Service Quality , 2007 .

[33]  Xueming Luo,et al.  Contextual Marketing and Customer-Orientation Strategy for E-Commerce: An Empirical Analysis , 2003, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[34]  David C. Yen,et al.  Improving the quality of online presence through interactivity , 2004, Inf. Manag..

[35]  Maria De Marsico,et al.  Evaluating web sites: exploiting user's expectations , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[36]  Dennis L. Hoffman,et al.  Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environments : Conceptual Foundations 1 ) , 1998 .

[37]  J. B. Freiden,et al.  Changes on the Electronic Frontier: Growth and Opportunity of the World-Wide Web , 1998 .

[38]  Francisco Javier Miranda González,et al.  A new Web assessment index: Spanish universities analysis , 2001, Internet Res..

[39]  Young Jun Lim,et al.  Consumers' Perceived Importance of and Satisfaction with Internet Shopping , 2001, Electron. Mark..

[40]  Ann E. Barron,et al.  Design Guidelines for the World Wide Web , 1996 .

[41]  Chris Anderson,et al.  The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More , 2006 .

[42]  Gek Woo Tan,et al.  An empirical study of Web browsing behaviour: Towards an effective Website design , 2006, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..

[43]  Ingoo Han,et al.  The impact of Web quality and playfulness on user acceptance of online retailing , 2007, Inf. Manag..

[44]  Gisela M. von Dran,et al.  User Expectations and Rankings of Quality Factors in Different Web Site Domains , 2001, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[45]  Hakman A. Wan,et al.  Opportunities to enhance a commercial website , 2000, Inf. Manag..

[46]  Abhijit Chaudhury,et al.  An empirical investigation of decision-making satisfaction in web-based decision support systems , 2004, Decis. Support Syst..

[47]  Jen-Her Wu,et al.  Empirical evaluation of the revised end user computing acceptance model , 2004, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[48]  Ephraim R. McLean,et al.  Information Systems Success: The Quest for the Dependent Variable , 1992, Inf. Syst. Res..

[49]  Kelsey L. Johnson,et al.  Benchmarking: a tool for Web site evaluation and improvement , 1999, Internet Res..

[50]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Designing web usability , 1999 .

[51]  Jim Q. Chen,et al.  Lessons Learned from an Initial E-Commerce Failure by A Catalog Retailer , 2005, Inf. Syst. Manag..

[52]  Chang Liu,et al.  Web sites of the Fortune 500 companies: Facing customers through home pages , 1997, Inf. Manag..

[53]  Mark Levene,et al.  Web Dynamics , 2004, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

[54]  Joy Wendy Wu,et al.  Extending the DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success Model for e-commerce website success , 2007 .

[55]  Antonis C. Stylianou,et al.  Global corporate web sites: an empirical investigation of content and design , 2003, Inf. Manag..

[56]  Francisco Javier Miranda González,et al.  Quantitative evaluation of commercial web sites: : an empirical study of Spanish firms , 2004, Int. J. Inf. Manag..