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More than 10 years after the Internet first really invaded British homes, many businesses in the UK are either completely ignoring it or failing to fully utilise it.

At first I was amazed to read that just over 1/3rd of UK businesses have absolutely no web presence whatsoever (according to figures from the UK Federation of Small Businesses). Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Then I sat down and thought about all the business owners that I have spoken to over the last 12 months and remembered that a large proportion of them admitted (with some uncomfortable shuffling of feet and gazing at the floor) that they didn’t have a website. Now, when you ask them if they use the internet themselves to find or buy stuff, almost 100% say yes, either buying from eBay, booking their next holiday, buying car insurance and so on. Yet they let their own business stumble along, a decade behind the times, getting all uncomfortable when asked if they have a website.

Of those that do have an online presence, only 18% actively sell things online according to the FSB.

According to Capgemini and the IMRG, online spending in the UK in 2007 was 46.6 BILLION POUNDS.
That’s up an impressive 54 per cent over the not inconsiderable £30.2 billion in 2006.

But what about 2008? What about the credit crunch and the gloomy economy we keep hearing about? Let’s look at the last couple of months or so. Clothing and footwear saw some of the biggest drops in sales in physical stores in June. What happened? Did people stop buying clothes? Hardly. According to Capgemini online sales of clothing rose 32 per cent and footwear rose 38 per cent in the same month…

OK, that’s just one month, what about July?
Capgemini report that UK internet sales reached £4.8bn in July, a rise of 11.3 per cent over June whereas figures for the high street reported by the British Retail Consortium say their sales were down 0.9 per cent in July compared to June.

With almost 20 out of every 100 pounds spent in the UK being spent online why do businesses in the UK either ignore their internet presence or just pay someone a few pounds to throw up nothing more than a phone number and address on a plain page? No-one is going to call after reaching a page that just contains a phone number when there are thousands of other sites with a proper website.

Do people think it’s expensive or complicated? For small businesses, going “online” is generally significantly cheaper than a months rent for their shop or office. In fact I’d estimate that it likely as not costs less than your annual electric bill… Contact us, we’ll prove it.

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