Question: My business is very small, just me and two
employees, and our product really can't be sold online. Do
I really need a website? - Robin C.
Answer: Congratulations, Robin, you are the one millionth
person to ask me that question. Smile for the cameras, brush
the streamers and confetti from your hair and listen closely,
because I'm about to answer for the millionth time what has
become one of the most important and often-asked questions
of the digital business age.
Before I answer, however, let's flash back to the very first
time I was asked this question. It was circa 1998, during
the toddler years of the Internet, just after Al Gore laid
claim to having given birth to the concept a few short years
before.
I was giving a speech on the impact of the Internet on small
business at an association luncheon in Montgomery, Alabama.
My motto then was: Feed me and I will speak. I have the same
motto today, but I now expect dessert to be included in exchange
for the sharing of my vast wisdom.
In 1998, which was decades ago in Internet years, the future
of electronic commerce or "ecommerce" as it's come
to be known, was anybody's guess, but even the most negative
futurists agreed that all the signs indicated that a large
portion of future business revenues would be derived from
online transactions, or from offline transactions that were the result of online marketing
efforts.
So, Robin, should your business have a website, even if your
business is small and sells products or services that you
don't think can be sold online? My answer in 1998 is the same
as my answer today: Yes, if you have a business, you should
have a website. Period. No question. Without a doubt. Thank
you, drive through.
Now serving customer number one million and one…
Also, don't be so quick to dismiss your product as one that
can't be sold online. Nowadays there is very little that can
not be sold over the Internet. More than 20 million shoppers
are now online, purchasing everything from books to computers
to cars to real estate to jet airplanes to natural gas to
you name it. If you can imagine it, someone will figure out
how to sell it online.
Internet marketing research firms predict that online revenues
will range between $180 and $200 billion dollars in 2003.
They also predict that the number of online consumers will
grow at a rate of 30-50% over the next few years. These numbers
alone should be enough to convince you that your business
should have a website.
Let me clarify one point: I am not saying that you should
put all your efforts into selling your wares over the Internet,
though if your product lends itself to easy online sales,
you certainly should be considering it.
The point to be made here is that you should at the very least
have a presence on the World Wide Web so that customers, potential
employees, business partners, and perhaps even investors can
quickly and easily find out more about your business and the products or services you have to offer.
That said, it's not enough that you just have a website. You
must have a professional looking website if you want to be
taken seriously. Since many consumers now search for information
online prior to making a purchase at a brick and mortar store,
your website may be the first chance you have at making a
good impression on a potential buyer. If your website looks
like it was designed by a barrel of colorblind monkeys, your
chance at making a good first impression will be lost.
One of the great things about the Internet is that it has
leveled the playing field when it comes to competing with
the big boys. As mentioned, you have one shot at making a
good first impression and with a well-designed website, your
little operation can project the image and professionalism of a much
larger company. The inverse is also true. I've seen many big
company websites that were so badly designed and hard to navigate
that they completely lacked professionalism and credibility. Good for you, too bad for them.
You also mention that yours is a small operation, but when
it comes to benefiting from a website, size does not matter.
I don't care if you are a one-man show or a ten thousand employee
corporate giant; if you do not have a website you are losing
business to other companies that do. Here's the exception
to my rule: It's actually better to have no website at all
than to have one that makes your business look bad.
Your website speaks volumes about your business. It either
says, "Hey, look, we take our business so seriously that
we have created this wonderful website for our customers!"
or it says, "Hey, look, I let my ten-year old nephew
design my site! Good luck finding anything!"
