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Evaluate Customer Feedback: Check for commonalities among feedback received throughout the year, and devise a plan to correct habitual problems. If you have not received customer feedback, reconsider whether your invitations for feedback are sufficiently prominent or easy to find on the web site. Ask your customers what they think of your web site, and what they would like to see on the site.

In addition, your Internet Service Provider may be able to supply information on the number of people who have visited your site (known as the number of “hits” to the site), as well as other useful information such as the most commonly visited page within your site and average length of time a visitor spent viewing the page. This can give you insight on what your customers find useful on the site.

Monitor Technology Changes: It is important to keep informed about hardware and software developments. You can then opt for basic improvements such as modifying your computer hardware with extra memory capacity, or your can consider larger technology improvements and implementations and, planning them in tandem with your business strategy.

Information concerning the newest technology trends can be obtained through the e-mail newsletters offered by publications or by websites of hardware and software suppliers. In addition, several computer publications offer online information and tips. You can obtain information on the Internet using sites such as http:⁄⁄www.computerworld.com.

Watch for Changes in Marketplace Landscape: Online marketplaces are in a state of fluid development. Marketplace success stories will often happen quickly so that within a short time after launching, a marketplace may become dominant. Therefore, you should monitor the web for new sites, using our criteria for successful sites found on page. Besides looking for new sites, monitor any marketplaces that you think offer valuable services, have an easy to use customer interface, and⁄or represent the industry area or niche in which you conduct business. Check these sites periodically for increases in the amount of trade traffic. Additionally, of course, monitor your customers in terms of their initiatives in use of e-marketplaces.

A trend will likely consist of marketplaces offering software for their members to utilize the transaction services of the site. This is the role of an Application Service Provider (ASP), and it may happen that marketplaces assume more traditional ASP services, including hosting ERP applications, for example