Website ROI: An idea whose time has come “Whoever isn’t measuring ROI on their Web site is crazy, because it is measurable,” says David Schoonover, online and CRM marketing manager, Kia Motors to Computerworld. Right on!! The lack of attention to web ROI is one of the main reasons for the persistence of poor online management. When nobody cares about the return generated by a website (intranet or extranet), nobody respects it. And when nobody respects it, neglect and abuse soon follow. Websites like this are either left to stagnate or become corporate 'playthings' with no sense of purpose. What a waste of effort! What a waste of money! How much better it would be to have 1 or 2 key targets against which web value could be evaluated. And, by this I don't mean "hits". Although high levels of traffic are generally welcome, they must translate into something more concrete for success to be proven. For example, some of the ways in which ROI can be measured include:

• Leads: How many extra sales leads have been obtained via the web?
• Revenue: By how many has the number of abandoned carts been reduced as the result of a site redesign?
• Costs: By how much have admin costs decreased as a result of putting customer self-service on an extranet?

These figures can then be gauged against the effort involved, e.g. money, time, people, meetings, etc. Only when this effort is exceeded by the resulting return, can you demonstrate that the investment was worth it.