Your website is like your shop front and needs to be both secure and accessible to help attract customers and increase revenue. It is vitally important therefore that your website is open and informative and meets legal requirements.
You should always present a ‘human’ face to encourage visitors to buy from you. Full contact details – name, business address, landline phone and fax number and email address – are vital features.
Since 2007, every company in the UK is required to provide corporate details on its websites, but despite this in nearly a third of cases, details are incomplete or absent altogether. Customers need to be confident when shopping online and the more concrete points of contact they have with your business for any queries or refunds, the better your sales will be.
Good business websites should have an ‘About Us’ section on their owners that carries informative, and interesting details that can put a face on their business and put across a unique perspective on the business. These could include the motivations for launching the business, influences, interests and are effectively the cyber equivalent of chatting over a counter.
You should also provide a privacy policy section on how you will handle customers’ personal details and one for terms and conditions which can legally underpin your business.
Finally, if you are a limited liability company you should include:
- The registered number of the company
- The place of registration of the company
- The VAT number (if VAT registered)
- The membership details of any trade or professional association