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Widen your net...article from The Leader Board
IS your potential profit being allowed to slip through the net, or are your business customers being caught up in your web? The answer to that key question could be crucial in the ongoing success of your business. Because if you are not selling your products and services globally via the internet then you are doing you and your business a disservice. And in this time of recession, can you afford to take that chance? A recent official survey involving 400 firms employing up to 50 people suggests that six out of 10 small businesses do not sell online. It means they are failing to take advantage of the international consumer demand for online spending, which has increased dramatically as people prefer to shop at home rather than go out.
Good article Clive and interesting stats. Launching ecommerce can be daunting if you want to do it with freely available products or expensive if you use a third-party company/consultancy. There are a lot of service providers with inflated margins which doesn't help and support seems thin on the ground (well without an additional fee of course). I'm happy to share some reasonable cost ideas with anyone interested please feel free to contact me through http://bit.ly/ycKt6. Perhaps others could recommend additional services they've used or are continuing to have success with?
I've just set my web development business up to use 2Checkout for credit card payments and Freshbooks for online invoicing. I can raise an invoice in Freshbooks that gets sent directly to the client by email. The client can then log into my invoicing system and pay the invoice online by credit card or transfer the money directly from their bank.
2Checkout even gives the option to pay the invoice in 12 different currencies, so my clients can pay the bill in their local currency and not pay conversion fees. The conversion rates they offer are pretty decent too - sometimes better than the 'official' rates.
All that being said, it was time consuming, a little frustrating, and took two calls into the support line to get it set up. I'm hoping it will help me expand my business into other countries and will be worth the investment of time and money.
Marketing to the right people can be very effective online as you do not have the postage and printing costs and can change and run slightly different messages without having entirely different brochures printed. It needs a different style though as people do not want to spend a long time assessing the content of your mailshot when they have so many other emails to wade through.
Fascinating figures Clive and a worthwhile point. It just shows you how people, despite having all the technology available, still don't maximise their potential in this way and you would have thought that online selling is the way to go. Like I say, fascinating.