Steps to Net success
More Scottish companies are online than ever before, but are their websites really the business tools they could be? Ewen Angus from Trinity Heriot says there is potential to improve further.
It's been four years since the Millennium meltdown in dot com share prices but where is the market now for e-business and is your company making the most of opportunities online? A Scottish Enterprise e-Business survey in 2003 showed that -
- 74% of Scottish businesses have internet access ( 68% in 2002 )
- 46% of organisations have a website ( 39% in 2002 ).
In addition to this, 55% of Scottish companies consider e-business essential, very important or important to their organisation's needs. For business though, these user figures are impressive, but it's actual sales of products and services that make a website more than just a pretty addition to your business card. British consumers spend over £1bn a month online ( 6% of total retail sales ) and last year, half of all UK firms bought goods and services online, spending £23bn in the process.
Not just for the big players
However, it's not just the big players like Amazon and Tesco who are reaping the benefits. Thousands of Scottish firms of all sizes have their email boxes bursting with orders. A levelling of the global marketplace since the arrival of the internet is the principal reason Scotland can grab sales and profits from the Web. Size and location is replaced online by quality and service, factors that many companies in Scotland have in abundance. SME's stand to gain as much as everyone from the rise of the internet, as a well designed and marketed website can compensate for your far larger rival having several times more offices or shops. By investing online your company can grow nationally or internationally at a fraction of the cost of expanding offline.
In many cases this expansion may only require a rebuilding of your website rather than starting anew. It's worth taking time to look dispassionately at your website and decide what's working and what isn't, ask everyone you can find - staff, customers, your kids ( they're usually ahead of the game for anything involving computers ). Questions to ask are -
- Does the site look dated? Being a couple of years old qualifies for a free bus pass.
- How often does the content change? If your news section features nothing since the Christmas party new ideas could be needed, imagine sending a customer last year's product brochure.
- Is there an e-commerce element? Can you sell your services or product online? If you can why aren't you?
- Does the navigation make sense? People don't wait long on websites to find information, if they can't find it straight away then they'll be off to your competitor.
- How is the website marketed? If you haven't gone further than putting your address on the letterhead of your stationary then it's worth looking into online marketing.
Trinity Heriot is working with B&F to update their website and improve its search engine marketing. We've asked ourselves these questions in order to create an online platform which will compliment the print magazine and give added value to its subscribers and advertisers alike.
A window onto the world
The international possibilities for your website are immense - there are more than 200 million internet users in North America, over 200 million in Europe and around 700 million globally. Many of the high growth economies of the future are increasingly looking to the internet for higher quality products and services than they can't find at home. Even if your business doesn't operate internationally, the benefits in cost cutting, communication and marketing mean an effective website should be an essential part of your business. Giving your website a spring clean should lead to a leaner and meaner company, to the benefit of your bottom line.
