|
 |
|
 |
|
|
Small retail businesses missing out on £70,000 a year in revenue by not moving their businesses to the web
Three quarters of small retailers still don't sell online, according to survey
26 April, 2005
Three quarters (75%) of small and medium sized retail businesses do not have websites from which their customers can make purchases, according to research commissioned by online payment service, PayPal (Europe) Ltd. The research questioned 800 small retail businesses (with 1-5 high street outlets) across the country.
According to the survey from market researchers The Survey Shop, 25% of small retail businesses that do have a website now estimate approximately one fifth of their annual sales revenue comes from the internet. This equates to the web delivering £69,540 on average for small retail businesses.
Of those that have taken the first step and do currently have a website, one-third (33%) haven't developed it to handle sales because they think their customers won't want to buy online, whilst another 17% believe the cost to be prohibitive.
However, The Survey Shop research indicates that businesses that have set up e-commerce sites estimate they spent around £2,000 on the process - a cost they have been able to recoup many times over. Infact, one quarter of companies that enable customers to buy from their website reported that their website is a more cost-effective sales channel than their own shop.
Geoff Iddison, chief executive of PayPal Europe commented:
"The web is becoming too powerful a sales channel for ambitious small retail businesses to ignore.
"With tools like PayPal's safe electronic payments system available to small businesses, it has never been easier or more cost effective to get started online, and there are real tangible benefits of doing so."
Geoff Iddison adds:
"This is a clear indication that SMEs have a lot to gain by introducing e-commerce. Small businesses that have e-commerce sites report that the web is directly responsible for 22% of their businesses' growth in the past year.
PayPal offers small retail businesses a range of tools to start trading online. The system enables anyone who wants to sell on the web to sign up for a free business account allowing them to accept payments funded by credit card at very competitive rates, both within the UK and internationally.
The service also offers free shopping cart software available to any user which can be quickly and easily installed by anyone with minimal knowledge of how the internet works.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
