Personalization is often key to providing an outstanding experience to users of your Web site. As an example, one of our customers developed a first-generation web site that delivered a large volume of basic technical support information on their Web site but failed to impact rapidly growing need for personal support services. The solution was developing a more personalized approach that provides important advantages over traditional technical support. Now, when a customer hits their support site, it now knows who they are, products they own, how long they have owned them, what release they are on, what level of support services they have contracted for, etc. The support site then provides them with a customized interface that addresses their individual needs. For example, it provides status of outstanding service requests and technical bulletins on equipment they own.

It almost goes without saying that it's very risky to rely upon your own perception of your customers' needs. A far more effective approach is to let actual customers evaluate your existing site as well as approach you are considering on a prototype basis so they can express their opinion as to whether it meets their needs. Focus groups and usability studies provide an excellent method to determine without a major investment whether or not your site is easy to navigate, delivers correct brand impressions, contains features and content that your customers are looking for, etc.

Another point to consider is that no matter how good a job you do in developing your strategy, it's going to be outdated in six months. That's why it's so important to develop a flexible, scalable architecture that will allow your system to easily adapt to future. Within a year after your site goes online, there's no doubt competitive landscape will have changed. You may have purchased a company, been acquired, entered new markets, changed your distribution channels, etc. The use of open standards and industry standard tools can contribute to development of architecture with real staying power. Be sure to investigate financial strength and market position of companies that you choose to provide components. Their ability to support you over long term is just as important as value of their technology.

Finally, one critical part of your e-business strategy is use of technology in your company. Are you going to build up your own expertise to maintain your e-business? In that case, you need to develop a programming staff, graphical design studio, editorial staff for content development, etc. The other alternative is to outsource your technology development to a service provider that will maintain your infrastructure and deliver your applications as a hosted service. This approach has advantage of allowing you to focus on your core business operations and outsource technology issues to a specialist. Whichever approach you take, develop a strategy that takes advantage of changes wrought by e-business revolution and your chances of success will be high.

Take into account fraud fatigue. Remember, most of us who were around before advent of online shopping have had message drilled into us: Don't give out your credit card number over phone (or in this case, phone lines). We need to be reassured that in 21st century, it's okay to break this old rule.

Susan Grant, of Internet Fraud Watch, says it really IS okay: "Paying with a credit card is safest way to shop online. Federal law protects credit card users if they don't get what they were promised or if unauthorized charges are made on their accounts."

Now, pass on that reassurance to your visitors. Outline your credit card security policy. Emphasize how safe new encryption technology is.

If you have a customer satisfaction policy, define it. If not, write one and stand behind it. Brick and mortar commerce has survived into 21st century because of its customer service ethic. E-commerce has to keep pace.

Back this up with your own privacy policy. There's an incredible appetite out there for targeted e-mail addresses and other personal data. And there's no shortage of online vendors who have no qualms about selling that information. If you want your customers' confidence (and their return visit), spell out exactly what will happen with their personal data after they entrust it to you.

Don't forget about technical matters. A recent survey said majority of consumers who abandoned their online transactions did so because their sessions were interrupted. That means we have to pay more attention to making purchase process easier; fewer pages and smoother site performance are vital to keeping customers.

Now you're ready to deliver coup de grace: Tell your visitors about your great customer service department. Splash it all over your website, because this is stuff that trust is made of. Consumers need to know there's a place to go or a number to call if they're not satisfied. Just fact that you're spending money on customer service staff proves you're not a fly-by-nighter.

By breeding trust in these ways, you can slowly but surely turn your window shoppers into e-shopaholics... giving you more time and money to go shopping yourself!