“Our official website is like an electronic business card that hasn’t been touched in ten years.” Li Ming, marketing director of a mid-sized manufacturing company in Shenzhen, did not hide his disappointment with his company’s website during a recent industry salon. His words struck a chord with countless small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) today—buy a template for a few thousand yuan, fill it with product images, and then leave it to wither. But a quiet transformation is underway. In the third quarter of 2024, with the explosion of AI-powered website building tools and low-code platforms, enterprise website building is shifting from a survival question of “having a website or not” to a battle over brand experience—namely, “is it good or not?”

In Hangzhou, a tech company named “CloudStation” has just released its third-generation intelligent website building system. Founder Wang Lei emphasized in an interview: “We no longer sell ‘websites’ as a product; we sell ‘brand digital entry points’ as a solution.” He revealed that the system can automatically generate a brand storytelling framework encompassing visuals, copy, and interaction logic based on the company’s industry attributes, target customer profiles, and even real-time trends. This marks the official end of the rough-and-tumble era of “template porters” in the enterprise website building industry, ushering in a new cycle of refined operations.

This shift is not unfounded. According to data from a leading domestic website building platform, in the first half of 2024, client attention to “design originality” and “mobile loading speed” rose by 47% and 62% year-over-year, respectively. Meanwhile, over 30% of business owners surveyed said they were looking for solutions that could integrate “enterprise website building” with “private domain traffic.” This means a static, display-only website can no longer meet business needs; it must become a “living” asset that connects users and accumulates data.

“In the past, people competed over who had more functional modules. Now, it’s about whose website ‘understands’ users better,” shared Chen Wei, CEO of “Leading Interconnect,” a B2B-focused website building service provider in Shanghai, during a recent public speech. She cited an industrial equipment company as an example: under traditional website building methods, customers had to navigate three or four layers of menus to find technical specifications. But with a new “scenario-based navigation” design, visitors only need to click “I want to solve production line efficiency issues,” and the system automatically pushes matching case studies and parameters—boosting conversion rates by three times. This user behavior-driven “experience-based enterprise website building” is becoming the new industry standard.

However, the transformation has not been smooth sailing. A large number of SMEs remain trapped in the “low-price trap”—spending a few hundred yuan on a template, only to find that slow loading, poor SEO friendliness, and lack of security protection damage their brand image. An industry analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity pointed out: “Many business owners think website building is a one-time investment, but it’s actually long-term brand operations. A failed website building project doesn’t just cost a few thousand yuan; it loses potential customer trust.” He suggested that when choosing a website building service, companies should prioritize evaluating its “content management capabilities” and “SEO friendliness” rather than just looking at the price.

Notably, local governments are also stepping into this arena. In August this year, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Commerce, in collaboration with multiple industry associations, launched the “SME Digital Storefront Upgrade Plan,” offering subsidies of up to 50% for enterprise website building projects that meet the standards. Behind this policy is the government’s recognition of “enterprise website building as the first step in digital transformation.” A representative from a garment trading company in Guangzhou that participated in the plan said that after receiving the subsidy, they decisively abandoned their five-year-old template and customized a new official website supporting multiple languages and real-time translation. Overseas inquiry volume doubled within two months.

From template stacking to brand storytelling, from one-time transactions to ongoing operations, enterprise website building is undergoing a transformation in identity—from a “tool” to a “partner.” For the vast number of SME entrepreneurs, this might be a signal: your website should no longer be an “electronic business card” gathering dust in a corner, but a “top-notch salesperson” that never sleeps. As the industry rules are being rewritten, whoever seizes the keyword “experience” first will gain the upper hand in the next round of business competition.