Websites are a must to growing sales

When a fast-food company cites the web as its main source of sales and profit growth, there can be almost no retailer or service provider left that couldn’t benefit from an online presence - especially with a recession looming.

This summer, fast-food retailer, Domino’s Pizza, floored financial analysts by reporting healthy growth in both revenues and profits - despite the economic downturn and a reduction in spending on luxuries by cash-strapped consumers. It achieved this growth largely thanks to booming online sales.

Domino’s has now sold £25.3m worth of pizza via its web activities which now account for over a fifth of delivered pizzas sold in the UK and typically generate an above-average order value.

This should be food for thought for any retailer or service provider not currently harnessing the internet to display or sell its wares. The days of assuming an organisation is too small or in the wrong market to benefit from internet-driven business are long gone.

There are two main reasons for this. One is consumer power. The internet generation has grown up and the average consumer will turn to the web before making a new purchase. The second important driver is that establishing a professional web presence has never been easier or more affordable – meaning that, even if you don’t have a fully functioning website, your nearest rival probably soon will.

Small, local high street stores often curse the growth of supermarkets and out-of-town retailers, which take away their trade with their lower prices and easier parking. But it’s also likely that some of the trade they are surrendering to these larger, more powerful out-of-town brands has been lost because they don’t have an informative website. That is, it isn’t just the fact that consumers can order their products online and have them delivered to their door, it may simply be because they have been able to peruse their wares ahead of time and have made their purchase decision before venturing down the high street.

Retail analysts believe ‘internet-influenced’ sales are grossly underestimated. Official figures suggest that more than 80% of the sales generated by web sites are being completed offline – the important point being that they were initiated online. Without a serious website, then, businesses can’t hope to capture any such sales.

What’s more, web-influenced store sales are growing at an average rate of 19% year-over-year, which is set to continue until 2012, compared with direct web-sales which are expected to grow by 12% (source: eMarketer.com). This confirms that an online presence is not just about completing transactions online; it is important for any offline business. This is especially true in the UK, the largest online retail market in Europe, and therefore the market where shoppers are most likely to start their research online.

So why are small businesses still holding back on their web activities? A quick online search of retailers and service providers along any high street will find that perhaps one in 10 has a website comprising more than an address, phone number and details of opening hours.

Traditionally, small retailers and service providers have resisted developing their own websites because of the perceived cost and complexity, only to then lack any control over any future updates to the site content.

Thankfully, this is no longer the only option. A rise in hosted DIY web-build solutions means that even the tiniest business can create its own highly professional and comprehensive online presence for as little as £10 a month. By buying the whole website development package as a pay-as-you-go service, they never need own the software, worry about integration, upgrades or maintenance.

Thanks to the availability of easy-to-use web design packages and professional website templates that have been pre-customised for particular business types, retailers and service providers can now design their own impressive online storefronts - without any skills or training - within just two or three days. The ability to choose from colour charts and update information at will, means small business managers can now take charge of what’s on their own websites and how often this is changed.

This is a significant development for small businesses trying to mark out a safe path through the impending recession, offering them a highly affordable and immediately accessible additional marketing and sales channel - and one capable of extremely high impact.

Professional websites have now entered the mass market and it is now more possible than ever for small businesses to match their larger counterparts, regardless of budget. Few companies can afford to persist in ignoring this critical sales channel if they want to ensure they make it onto consumers’ shortlists - particularly with Christmas fast approaching.

By Wilfried Beeck

Wilfried Beeck is CEO of ePages, a leading provider of e-business software for hosting providers and enterprise customers.