What your e-commerce customers really want-and how to give it to them! Tomorrow's e-commerce winners will be the sites that help customers accomplish their goals better, faster, and more easily. Now, top Web consultant Jodie Dalgleish shows you exactly how to build sites like that-every step of the way. Drawing upon two years of exclusive research on Web customers, Dalgleish addresses every component of e-commerce success: content, navigation, applications, information architecture, visual design, technology, and more. Customer-Effective Web Sites presents 17 rock-solid rules every site must follow to attract profitable customers-and keep them. Discover how to:

• Define your customers' true needs and requirements

• Manage Web development for maximum speed, value, and effectiveness

• Fix problems that are alienating your customers right now

• Integrate your site with "bricks-and-mortar" resources

• Plan for "next generation" opportunities your competitors haven't recognized

Whether you're a dot.com executive, marketer, Web developer, or consultant, you're under the gun to deliver e-commerce results--now. Get the book that comes straight from the e-commerce battlefield, combining new, customer-centered insight with Web management techniques that work: Customer-Effective Web Sites, by Jodie Dalgleish.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 10 Ratings

Important for e-commerce managers - 2000-08-13
Reviewer Rating:
I get the feeling that this book may immediately appear as most suited to Web designers. Actually, this book is about A LOT MORE than Web design. In fact, Dalgleish covers the full gamut of the process for both businesses and their suppliers (including Web designers). The reader is lead through the process from beginning to end - and e-commerce managers who are on the line for the delivery of results, need to know everything about what is coming, and the pitfalls to avoid. And what's unique about the book is that the end-to-end process is customer-driven, from the very questions businesses need to ask themselves when writing their strategy right through to the Way a Web designer translates the business' service offering into tangible navigation design, for example. Dalgleish makes it clear that the book was written for the whole community seeking to create Web experiences for customers; a community that needs to integrate its efforts to really deliver to the customer for competitive advantage to business and better lives for people - and that includes e-commerce managers like me. A must read.

Gems - 2000-07-13
Reviewer Rating:
This book deserves two or three reads. There are some real gems to be discovered. The easy-to-read writing style might disguise some really unique thinking and concepts. The author presents the concept of "theming" (where customer scenarios create "doing threads" around which navigation, metahor, utility and dialogue are wrapped) for example as a whole new way to approach Web design. The author also shows how a company can do research to identify what customers need to do on their Web site and why - and how that gets communicated to the Web designer and incorporated into a "theming" approach throught the development and testing process. The author also presents new project management and business process design techniques. Not to mention the no-nonsense way the author establishes the fact that Web sites are currently falling way short of customer expectations (without berating the point and giving tangible examples). I was also intrigued by the fact that this book was written a few months before the .com crash - much of what was foretold has come about - the point in the last chapter about "the quick and the valued" and the need for companies to establish real customer value instead of thrashing the latest fad was well made. This book should be read by everyone involved in eBusiness, across the spectrum, for a reality check, and for some fresh thinking.

Tough read but good points can be sieved out - 2000-07-28
Reviewer Rating:
The first few pages excited me, as I thought the book was coming at the subject from a great angle. However, then I got bogged down. While there are useful points made, it is difficult to find them.

I feel the book could be useful for people who are approaching websites from a technical background but that the overkill - in my opinion - on the marketing basics will obstruct people with a marketing background from getting much value from it.

I also found the structure of the book took greatly from my ability to get to the content. In many chapters, things are broken down like chunks of code - while this might make it easy to reference a certain topic, the way the code was assembled made reading the book in a linear manner difficult. Had it been a website, it would have lost this customer to another site quickly (that said, the structure would probably work better online).

Nonetheless, there are ideas of value in the book and, for readers from a technical background, it offers some ideas that you should think about.

OK for not in-depth - 2001-01-21
Reviewer Rating:
This book offer beginners a quick start about various items when designing a website, with customer focus in mind. Quite good if you always have strategy in your mind. Advanced readers may skip this one.

A Primer for Effective web site development - 2001-05-12
Reviewer Rating:
Dalgleish nails down the methodology and identifies the most relevant issues for developing EFFECTIVE web sites in a clear and concise manner. It wouldn't surprise me if this book saves millions and significnatly cuts development cycles.

DOT COM CIOs should have purchased this book before hiring anyone!!!

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E-Commerce
Internet/Online

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E-Commerce > Marketing and Strategy
Internet/Online > Web Design