Surely you've heard the terms 'Website' and 'Storefront' in common day dialog referencing the internet and e-commerce specifically considering it's one of the biggest types of business in the world now. The term 'Website' considered to be much more straight forward in terms of self explanatory, than that of 'Storefront'. As it turns out, although very similar in nature relative to a few e-comm aspect, they are very much difference in several ways. Bringing us the to the purpose of this blog, what defines the two terms, how they are alike and difference and more importantly - Which one works best for your needs.
WEBSITE
First we need to define the term 'Website' in and of itself, in order to have a better understanding of the two things - what exactly a website is consistent of, along with what it is not.
As you can see from the above image, the literal term defined as per a classic Google search. However it is obviously more detailed that in modern day standards. What I mean by this, is not only the fact (and contrary to the definition given above), does a website have the criteria of "being produced by a single person or organization". In fact, large corporations have entire teams that are established for the sole purpose of working on that corporations website on a daily routine basis. That's not at all discriminating the possibility of a sole priority who is pro-DIY anything to save funds when possible and will be attempting to create his or her presence online to a business to the next level online by making the site themselves of course.
It also doesn't mean that a website is typically or most of the time even having to a main purpose of Business at all. I don't know the numbers off the top of my head nor have I attempt to seek out cite-able source to refer to here on just what percentage of all websites online are business driven or otherwise not. I'm not even sure there would be a way to get an honest number anyways with the complexity and the vast categorization of things now online. Although outside the scope of what is needed here it would be interesting to know if it were possible to get semi close accurate numbers though. However, the point being that a website is in fact more than just business but for the purpose of the writing here we focus on that aspect.
Now, let me provide a few example of a website for business use and although there are many different and acceptable choices of website building platforms I will choose the one I am most familiar with- WIX.
The WIX platform is rather unique in the sense, and personally considered to me as more of 'hybrid'. Strictly because it that it can be used for more than just a business driven endeavor. Notice below the current tiers or packages for WIX that are offered,
If you compare the first "Light" plan to any of the other 3 items, you notice the marketing features only start stacking up the further to the left you go. The question here that could be asked is: Why?
Let's break it down. Price being the most obvious and classic example of marketing, buy more get more being the idea, but it's more than that. What I mean by that is, the "light" selection you see is aimed for use with say making a digital portfolio to reference to a hypothetical job opportunity. A good example would be a graphic designer showing off his work in first hand in real team examples or a even a photographer showing off his portfolio. Move over to the left, "Core", "Business" and "Business Elite" are more of the business driven feature sets for online sales and more.
---To be continued---
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