Chapter 1. Multisite Commerce Scenarios

Key Concepts

Create multiple sites to fill essential needs of an online business Create multiple sites for different scenarios; several typical scenarios have emerged Customize such aspects as presentation, products catalog, pricing, marketing, and inventory of each site Observe that there are similarities among the different multisite scenarios

We begin our exploration of multisite commerce by investigating situations in which multiple commerce sites are necessary. From a business point of view, such scenarios must be viewed based on how critical multiple sites are to a company. In some cases, having multiple sites can help a company improve its profits but is not critical to the business. On the other hand, in many situations multiple sites are an essential part of a company’s commerce business.

For example, let’s imagine a company that has a profitable business selling kites. From a marketing point of view, the company might generate additional revenue if it created sites targeted to different kinds of needs. For example, it could create a site dedicated to kites suitable for children, or a site for stunt kites dedicated to the enthusiasts in this field. However, each additional site would require additional effort to administer it, such as designing the site, creating the content, and deciding which products it should have. Each site would also carry some cost. From the company’s point of view, it is not clear that the benefits outweigh the expenses. Perhaps the company’s owners are perfectly happy with their current business, and are not interested in the additional costs and complexities, even if they could generate some extra income from extra sites. Therefore, in this situation we would say that multisite commerce is either not necessary or at least is not essential to the company’s online business.

By contrast, in many business scenarios, multiple sites are critical to successful online commerce. For example, let’s say a company sells to both businesses and individual shoppers. Often the requirements of business purchasing are completely different from consumer shopping. The checkout process, the presentation of products, and even the registration of customers are all different in business-to-business situations (B2B), compared to business-to-consumer (B2C). If a company insists on having a single site dedicated to both B2B and B2C markets, it is most probable that either the consumers or the business customers, or both, will be faced with what they view as an imperfect and difficult-to-use site. At the same time, presumably the competition is not sleeping and is likely to create dedicated sites that make online shopping and business purchasing as convenient as possible for all its customers. In this case, the company that insists on a single site will likely lose its customers to the competition. Therefore, having multiple sites must become an essential part of the online commerce strategy of this company.

Thanks to the creativity of human enterprise and the diversity of business ideas, there is no end to scenarios that cause companies to create multiple commerce sites. It would therefore be impossible to give an exhaustive list of all possible situations with multiple sites. However, in the past several years, several common situations have emerged that involve the creation of multiple commerce sites. In this chapter, we describe such common scenarios, focusing on the situations in which having multiple sites is particularly important to the business.