Web Business Architecture

What is Web Business Architecture?

Web Business Architecture is a new process based way to doing business on the web. This page provides an overview and looks at the six main processes.

Let’s start by defining what we mean by Web Business Architecture:

Web Business Architecture is a structured process based approach to developing an online web based business that is profitable. With the right processes in place your business can grow and be profitable. If you don’t have the right processes in place you may be able to grow and profit from your business but it is likely to be a lot harder and take a lot longer.

Why is Web Business Architecture Important?

There are two key reasons why Web Business Architecture is important. First Web Business Architecture gives you a way to think about your web business that helps you to focus on what you need to do in order to be successful online. Second it provides a process based Blueprint that acts as a checklist to help make sure that you have covered all the aspects of running a successful online business.

There are other ways to model or think about a web business. For example we might think about our online business as a website with a set of web pages - in fact this is what most people do. However by thinking in terms of web pages it is easily to lose sight of the big picture and instead of focusing on how to improve our profits we can get distracted by something as simple as a web page that does not look as good as it could. Yes the page could probably do with a makeover, but promoting your business online is much more important.

My experience is that the process based approach presented on this website is very practical and almost forces you to think about your website as a business rather than a set of technologies or web pages. So think business and not just website.

What are the Web Business Architecture Processes?

As we stated above Web Business Architecture is best seen as a set of processes and in the diagram below we have identified the six main processes that make up a good Web Business Architecture. The idea is that in order for you to have a profitable web business all six processes need to be in place and working well. If you have only three or four of these processes in place then you are at best leaving money on the table and at worst you are losing money.

For each process to work well you need to have the right tools (eg software), techniques (eg sales pages) and skills (eg copywriting) in place. This may seem like a tall order but it does not have to be complicated. Web Business Architecture can work equally well for a small single product online business all the way up to major corporate businesses. In this report I will focus on the websites built by individual entrepreneurs and small businesses.

 

Note that the terms web business, online business and website all refer to the same thing – your online web business which is conducted via a website.

The Six Web Business Architecture Processes

In no particular order of importance here are some brief descriptions of each of the above six processes. In later sections we will look in detail at each one. Some of the terms used here may be unfamiliar to you but all of them will be explained in later sections:

Acquire Products

This is the process of either developing your own products or identifying other peoples products that you are going to market and sell online.

Website Development

This is the process of developing and maintaining your website so that it grows with your business.

Website Promotion

This is the process of promoting your website through techniques such PPC (explained later) so that it gets as much good web traffic as possible.

Website Sales

This is the process of selling to your website visitors through sales pages, squeeze pages, and generally how your website is constructed.

Order Fulfillment

This is the process of taking orders for your products or services and delivering them to your customers.

Email CRM

Email CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is the process of building a relationship with your prospects and customers using email. On the web the primary proven way to build a relationship with your customers is through email.

 

In this section we have covered what Web Business Architecture is, why it is important for your business and what the six key processes are. In the following sections we will look at each of the six processes in detail.