Online bussines

The online business environment is becoming increasingly competitive. Who will survive in the long-run? The smartest, that’s who. The smartest online businesses have an internet strategy to guide their ongoing development and success.If you don’t know where you are going, then any path will get you there. This is an old saying and one that applies equally in the online world as it does anywhere else. You can’t predict the future is another quote I often hear when challenging the merits of strategic planning. I believe this to be true but still believe that any business, on-line or not, can benefit by having a strategy that stands the test of time. Ok let’s look at how we develop an online strategy.Strategy is about winning. It is also about the long-term. So planning to win in a competitive situation is what strategy aims to achieve. So what process do we go through to develop our online strategy?The online world is changing. Every year, more and more people are researching their needs online and are increasingly willing to buy online. So the first step in any strategy development process is to look at the current situation. What does the current competitive environment look like (internal and external) and what challenges do we face? Then develop a focussing question. Focussing questions help to keep the strategy clearly focussed on a particular question. For example, how can we reshape our business to align with the changing needs of customers without driving cist up? This is a focussing question.