E-Commerce: Whalen Clean and Tidy - Essay Example

Considering the business nature of Whalen Clean and Tidy which provides cleaning services to local office buildings, setting up a website for a targeted audience could involve an extensive online marketing approach to gain both offline and online visibility. Since this kind of business is not that much common, the site to be created needs to be noticed by customers. To do this marketing, we can apply these approaches:

• Search Engine Placement and SEO – Search engine is a standard way to find any Internet site and which includes online shopping sites. A large number of online shoppers utilize online search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) to find their products, services, and any desired information about a thing.
• Conventional Advertising – this may include advertising in TV, newspapers, etc. Using this type of advertising may not seem soothing with the Internet address as its statement. Apparently, still online business recommends this traditional way.
• Exchange Links – Outbound links from other relevant site referrals can boost your search engine rankings and exposure. Links are included on a variety of other sites with a variety of deals being done.

            It is also important to consider the website usability; this should conform to the web standards which will allow customers to browse the site with ease. Order processing should also be processed online, orders or bookings for cleaning services which are basically linked with a back-office system. Payments for booking can be done on different modes – cash, check, or credit cards. Considering payment processing and posting bookings, security is now a primary concern since online payments are offered. This ensures customers that the transaction online will be secured and confidential. This will help them increase trust and confidence in doing business with you.

 The necessity of these elements is of high importance but marketing can be less of a priority if you already have established offline valued customers. They can later do the referral marketing and you can do more online marketing later on.

The approach to e-business is another avenue for firms to apply to increase the range of customer reach and therefore revenues. From a business perspective (B2B), e-commerce can create value by improving the efficiency of delivering services. Many competitive business sectors use e-commerce to reach customers and enhance business transactions. For customers (B2C), this approach can provide them with extreme convenience, speed, and personalization. And, for employees (B2E), e-commerce gives firms the opportunity to reduce operational costs for their employees.