According to estimates relating to the past year, in Italy only 30% of companies own a website, while the remaining 70% still relies only on local (neighborhood) trade. The online sales sector has undergone a significant acceleration, also due to the Pandemic, both in terms of visitors and in terms of sales and does not seem willing to stop.
Do you need other reasons to think about expanding your business to the world of the web? If you haven't done it yet, and maybe you have little experience in the field, this is the right article for you! In the following lines we will see which types of Internet sites exist and which one is best suited to the needs of your sector and your company.
Choose the most suitable website
Before seeing which types of websites you can choose from, let's stop for a moment. The first thing to understand is why you decided to create a website. In addition to the commercial opportunities offered by the sector (for more information, please refer to this article), you have to think about the goal you intend to achieve with the creation of the site.
Do you want to increase the visibility of your shop? Or do you want to open a new sales channel? Or else, do you want to inform your customers about the latest news? Each company has unique characteristics, a specific clientele and a specific sector. These factors affect the type of website more suitable to make.
Types of websites
To achieve their commercial objectives, each company obviously has different needs. To meet each of these needs, websites have also "specialized" according to different types. Let's see them.
Showcase site
When we think of a website “Classic” the image that comes to mind is probably that of a showcase site, the simplest and most widespread type. Just as the name implies, the showcase site contributes to the visibility of your company on the internet.
Through a showcase site what is technically called is transmitted brand awareness and that we can define as “brand awareness”. In fact, it describes all the qualities of your company: the values on which it is based, the services offered, the staff, etc.
The goal of a showcase site is therefore to promote your company and increase its visibility. This type of site is particularly suitable for those who are approaching the world of the web for the first time and want, so to speak, to "test the ground".
The showcase site is in fact the cheapest site to create and easier to manage, as it does not require special maintenance.
E-commerce site
The site of the typology e-commerce it is similar in structure to a showcase site and has the characteristics listed above. In fact, it contains a section dedicated to the company and its values and helps to increase the visibility of your company online.
The big difference is that an e-commerce aims to sell your products online, through a dedicated section: the shop. In this space you can browse the catalog of your products, add them to the cart and finally buy them.
It is a more complex type of website, both to create and to manage. Selling your products online, in fact, also means having to deal with shipments, returns and customer management on the web.
The sites e-commerce they are suitable for commercial retail companies that want to increase the number of their customers and, consequently, increase revenues.
Custom site
The third type of website available is the custom site. Its main feature is that the structure changes according to the needs of the commercial activity to which it is linked.
This type of site allows the implementation of pages dedicated to a blog, to forms form for the collection of contacts and user requests, booking forms (such as those that can be found on the websites of hotel facilities), etc.
As mentioned, these sites are created to meet specific needs and require more maintenance and management skills, compared to the simpler showcase sites.
PWA
The last type of website that it seems appropriate to present is actually a hybrid form of website: the PWA. In fact, it can be defined as a website that behaves like an app (for more information on this, see this article).
This type of site is shown in different forms depending on the device on which it is displayed and acts as a real application. Given its "changeable" form, it is often difficult to understand the nature and potential of this type of website.
However, it is a website extremely easy to manage, as it does not require maintenance and updating.
Manage a website
Now you should have a better idea of which type of website is best suited to your needs, because no one knows your business better than you.
However, to make the most of the potential of a website it is necessary to contact a team of experts, capable of accompanying you in all phases of the process, from creation, to maintenance, up to the study of commercial strategies to grow your business.
Only a team of professionals, in fact, is able to create and manage a website in the correct way, starting from the creation of a responsive website, up to its positioning on search engines (SEO).
