In December 2011 the recorded UK population was 62,298,362 of which 82% are internet users. Today it is common practice that people will browse a business website to decide how they trust them.
On a monthly basis adults spend approx 29 hours on the internet. You may think this is made up of young people whom are immersed in the technology. In fact 12 – 17 years olds spend only 11 hours a month on the internet. The age group that spends the longest on average on the internet is 35 – 44 year olds.
There are still some people whom have an inherent distrust for anything on the internet with regards to security and privacy. However, today these people are in the minority. In fact 84% of internet users have shopped online. In 2009 the total contribution to the UK economy from internet based transaction is estimated to be £100 billion, making it more important to the economy than the construction, transportation or utilities industry.
In the UK the average working day is 9am – 5pm. I believe that people should be given the opportunity to enjoy their lives and not work all the time – after all the better the quality of life the more productive the employee. However, wouldn’t it be great if you did have employees around the clock. Well a website is exactly that – anyone can find out anything about your company at their own leisure. Your website can be so interactive that your users are engaged with your business even when all its employees (including you) are enjoying time with their families or fast asleep.
If business owners would give me a pound every time they said they were too small to have a website I would be a rich man. It is a popular misconception that not only do you not need a website that even if you had one you couldn’t compete with the big boys. In fact the internet enables the opposite. The internet levels the playing field, allowing small businesses to compete with the large, using all the same methods. Today is the era of small companies with very large turnovers – the time when traditional management models are being turned upside down – when small garage startups turn into Google. In a study commissioned by Yell, Southampton University found 4.5 of 8 people preferred a company online when they perceived it as smaller. This does not mean that they will make as much money as the larger companies as they do not have the same reach however their quality of customers and conversion rate is better.
I hope that this article and infographic may help you decide to either get a website or update your own. If you have any stories of how surprised you were at the success of your website we would love to hear your comments below.
Size doesn't matter - yell.com
Internet research - nielsen.com
Internet world stats