Survey finds many businesses failing to make most of web

Despite online business and ecommerce website design and development well and truly taking off over the past few years and several high-profile, established companies making the move to ecommerce with resoundingly successful results, many Australian and New Zealand retailers remain reluctant to invest in the cultivation of a professional online presence or ecommerce facility.

It’s no secret that having an online presence can have a hugely positive impact on modern businesses. Melbourne web design and ecommerce investment helps with engaging a wider audience, promoting products and services and offering more competitive prices.

Those are just a few of the benefits a business can enjoy by investing in an online presence.

A recent survey by MSI Global Alliance revealed that while 63% of retailers claimed the success their investments in online presence and ecommerce operations had resulted in, and 72% had identified online businesses as the source of their strongest competition for market share, a surprisingly large number of retailers responded that had not invested, or did not even intend to invest, in creating a website or online store.

Despite so many businesses already relying so much on the Internet for communication and various services, about 42% of those in Australia and New Zealand said they had not put in the time or effort to create a professional website or online store for their business. But the most surprising statistic to come from the survey was to do with those businesses that not only did not have an online presence, but had no intention of considering one in the near future.

Twenty-one per cent of those retailers surveyed said they had no plans to account for their increasingly digital competition by investing in an online presence for themselves. Even with so much evidence to demonstrate the value of setting up an online store or at least a professionally designed and developed website – and with so many major companies and brands proving that with enough effort and perseverance, making the move to go digital can stimulate growth and revitalise an audience’s perception of a product or service – these retailers are not looking to make the online world work for them.

Surveys like this demonstrate that while the benefits of going online with a business are clear, there still remains a significant number of retailers prepared to let the digital revolution pass them by. In a time of great economic instability and consumer unease, it pays to be adaptable and open to change.