Q: My business is very small, just me and two employees, and our product really can't be sold online. Do I really need a website? -- Robin C.A: Congratulations, Robin, you are one millionth person to ask me that question. Smile for cameras, brush streamers and confetti from your hair and listen closely, because I'm about to answer for millionth time what has become one of most important and often-asked questions of digital business age.
Before I answer, however, let's flash back to very first time I was asked this question. It was circa 1998, during toddler years of Internet, just after Al Gore laid claim to having given birth to concept a few short years before.
I was giving a speech on impact of Internet on small business at an association luncheon in Montgomery, Alabama. My motto then was: Feed me and I will speak. I have same motto today, but I now expect dessert to be included in exchange for sharing of my vast wisdom.
In 1998, which was decades ago in Internet years, future of electronic commerce or "ecommerce" as it's come to be known, was anybody's guess, but even most negative futurists agreed that all signs indicated that a large portion of future business revenues would be derived from online transactions, or from offline transactions that were result of online marketing efforts.
So, Robin, should your business have a website, even if your business is small and sells products or services that you don't think can be sold online? My answer in 1998 is same as my answer today: Yes, if you have a business, you should have a website. Period. No question. Without a doubt. Thank you, drive through.
Now serving customer number one million and one…
Also, don't be so quick to dismiss your product as one that can't be sold online. Nowadays there is very little that can not be sold over Internet. More than 20 million shoppers are now online, purchasing everything from books to computers to cars to real estate to jet airplanes to natural gas to you name it. If you can imagine it, someone will figure out how to sell it online.
Internet marketing research firms predict that online revenues will range between $180 and $200 billion dollars in 2003. They also predict that number of online consumers will grow at a rate of 30-50% over next few years. These numbers alone should be enough to convince you that your business should have a website.