Articles: UK Internet Sales continue to increase
Date Added: 21/03/2012 @ 9:49am
According to recent statistics, we did 13.5% of our shopping online in 2010 and according to BCG that is expected to rise to as much as 26% by 2016.
If you run a small-medium sized business this figure may concern you, especially if you rely entirely on one-to-one contact with your customers - but it shouldn't.
In the UK, Online shopping makes up 8.3% of the total economy - the biggest share of all the G20 countries. That's a share which is bigger than the healthcare, construction or education sectors.
These figures indicate that, like it or not, the way we do shopping seems to have changed. The initial fears that many had over the security of online shopping seem to have been put to rest - for now at least.
Despite the huge impact that e-commerce is having on the economy, another recent report shows that UK small businesses are lagging behind other European countries. In Italy, an astounding 94% of small-medium sized retailers have an e-commerce website - which compares to just 75% in the UK.
Your business doesn't need to be big to make the most of e-commerce. You should consider your website as an extra shop window and another place that you can sell your products or services - and the best thing is that you don't need to know anything about how a website works to do so.
Online payment providers, like PayPal and Google Wallet, make it easy to sell your products safely, quickly and easily - helping to add to your day-to-day income. After a few sales, the website will be paying for itself.
Of course, the success of any ecommerce website is all down to how well the website shows up in the search engines (SEO), and we'd be happy to provide our ongoing support in helping you to reach as many new customers as possible.
As the Internet becomes a more and more integral part of our day-to-day lives, it provides the your business with the opportunity of reaching new customers far beyond your normal geographic location. It's an opportunity that you don't need to miss.