Successful SME web design through consumer focus groups

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to pursue two major objectives. First, to identify the key design variables for building successful transactional SME (Small Medium Enterprises) websites. Second, the transactional relevance of each key design variable is tested in order to establish priorities.Design/methodology/approach – The present paper is developed through seven consumer focus groups. Two approaches were used: an ethnographic summary of each focus group (qualitative approach) and a systematic coding procedure (quantitative approach).Findings – The findings indicate that a transactional website should have three main strong points: it must be secure; price information should be provided; and a wide range of images should be shown. But not all these factors are equally important.Practical implications – These results lead one to recommend that managers should expend more effort to make the website more secure and detailed in terms of content. Second, even e‐services have not obtained the highe...