You operate a traditional small business, a store, salon or restaurant, and you have no intentions of becoming the next Amazon.com. Why should you consider a presence on the web?
A great question, but unfortunately there is no single, easy answer. The web is not a panacea, nor is it the automatic solution to every business problem. It is a tool, no more – no less. It is neither good nor evil, expensive or cheap – it can offer alternative solutions, and in many cases, solutions which simply are not available through any other method.
Do you have a small store selling specialty products? Do you have problems finding enough customers in your immediate geographic area? Put that business on the web and geographical barriers no longer exist. Anyone who speaks English and has Internet access is a potential customer. According to the latest Census Bureau report, 62-percent of Americans have Internet access in their home, up from only 17-percent in 1997. Even more encouraging, 82-percent of those households have broadband instead of dial-up.
What does that mean to your business? Over 70 million American homes currently have access to the Internet. Almost 60 million of those have broadband connection, meaning they can take advantage of more interactive services. If that isn’t enough of a potential customer base, we need to include the other English speaking areas of the world, Canada, large parts of Europe, the Caribbean – well, you get the idea.
But I have a Pizzeria, I’m not going to ship pizzas to Denmark. Maybe not *, but what if people could login to your website and get directions to your location, or see a map describing your delivery area, see your hours of operation, what forms of payment you accept, read over your menu or even place orders right over your website. That is simply something no other media can offer. What if you change your menu? Those fliers you just printed up are obsolete, but you can update your website easily to reflect those changes.
Maybe you have a collectibles shop offering Hummel figurines? The web can expand your potential customer base far beyond the geographical limits of your brick and mortar facility. A shopping cart will allow you to bring your entire store online. You could easily add features to your web site that educated your customers in Hummel lore and facts. Or possibly allow them to exchange photos of their collections and discuss their common obsession, exchanging personal stories and tips.
Want to send out monthly newsletters? Or keep your customers up-to-date on the latest news or developments, want to show them the latest additions to your line? All of these services, and many more, are easily provided using a web site. A web presence isn’t a replacement for your current business model, or even your current advertising plan, it is an additional set of options. A way to reach new customers, a new way to offer old services, a method to educate, to provide additional information, spread your philosophy or even to simply provide information to customers or employees.
* If you sell pastries, spices, or exotic ingredients – with the help of UPS you might want to reconsider that statement
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