If you do not currently have a website for your business, you have to keep track of your customer’s information manually, through the help of the telephone, a customer service staff, (who collects the information) and a filing system.  Additionally, without the Internet, your customers must call your business or look through a catalog to find out what current products your company is selling.  Why continue doing things the old-fashioned way, both for yourself and your customer?  With a website it’s possible to automate customer data collection through website forms.  And, in terms of your customer, with website databases, they can not only access all of your company’s merchandise with ease, but with just a few clicks they can make an order instantly.  Of course, if you have no idea what website forms or website databases are, read on as the next few paragraphs will not only explain what they do, but also how you can incorporate them into a company website. 

First, there are website forms.  Website forms consist of a series of text boxes, which are white rectangular ‘boxes’ in which a visitor enters in information. To determine what needs to be entered in, visitors have to look at the label that is at the top or towards the sides of the text box.  When the visitor finishes filling out the website form, they usually press a button labeled ‘Submit’.  When the ‘Submit’ button is pressed, all of the data found on the website form is sent to your email address and/or a website database.  Of course, be wise and never have just a ‘soft’ copy of your data; always make sure to back it up on a CD or a flash drive. 

Now, you are ready to read more about website databases, which, if incorporated with your website could be used to store data.  Website databases can contain both customer and merchandise information.  Customer information would be obtained from website forms filled out by the consumer, while you would have to supply the data regarding your merchandise.  If you have a very large selection of products, you may want to hire a data entry person to enter the information in the website database, but other than the possible voluminous element, website databases are very easy to use.  You just follow the prompts and enter in what you need.  This is especially the case for website databases specially designed for e-commerce sites.