If customers mainly need to learn who you are and contact you, a brochure website is enough. If they should be able to choose products and pay without speaking to anyone, you need an online shop. Many businesses start with the first and add the second later. The right choice depends on how your customers actually buy.
What a brochure website does
A brochure website presents your business. It explains what you do, shows your work, answers common questions and makes it easy to get in touch.
It suits you when:
- Customers ask for a quote or a visit before buying.
- Your services vary by customer and cannot have a fixed price on a page.
- Sales happen by phone, message or in person.
- You mainly want to be found in search and look trustworthy.
It is simpler to build and cheaper to keep running than a shop, and there is less to go wrong.
What an online shop adds
A shop lets people browse a catalogue, add items, pay and arrange delivery. That brings more moving parts.
- Product pages with variants, prices and images.
- Checkout and payments.
- Shipping and delivery options.
- Customer accounts and order history.
- Stock that stays correct as orders arrive.
Each of these needs setting up and looking after. A shop with out-of-date stock or a confusing checkout can lose you more than it earns.
Questions to decide it
| Question | Points towards |
|---|---|
| Do customers buy without talking to you? | Shop |
| Do you have a fixed catalogue? | Shop |
| Is each job priced separately? | Brochure site |
| Do business customers order by quote? | Shop with enquiry-style checkout, or a brochure site |
| Is your stock list small and rarely changing? | Either |
If you answered both ways, that is normal. A brochure site with a clear contact form is a sound place to start.
The middle path
You do not have to choose forever. Start with a site that presents your business well, then add a shop when you are ready. Plan for this from the start so the design and structure can grow without a rebuild.
Some shops do not take online payment at all. Business buyers can send an enquiry and receive a quote, which suits suppliers whose prices depend on the order.
A short example
Think of a local business that makes furniture to order. Every piece is priced after a conversation, so a brochure website with good photographs and a clear enquiry form fits well. Now think of a business that sells a fixed range of household goods. Customers know what they want and expect to pay at once, so a shop makes sense. The first business may add a small shop for accessories later. The point is to match the site to how people really buy, not to copy what a bigger business does.
Things people forget
- Stock and orders. If web orders are retyped by hand into your stock and invoicing, mistakes follow. Think about where the shop sits next to the rest of your systems.
- Speed. Slow pages lose customers in either kind of site.
- Search. A site nobody finds does not help, so plan for being found.
- Upkeep. Someone must host it, update it and fix it when it breaks.
- Brand. Both kinds of site should look like the rest of your business.
Where Teapot Techies fits
We design, build and host business websites, and we keep them maintained after launch. For shops, we build on Odoo’s website and shop apps so products, stock, orders and invoices stay in one place, and we will say so if another approach suits you better. See websites and e-commerce. We can also look at what you have today and tell you whether to move it across or rebuild.