10 Reasons why companies should start doing business online

By Nowshade Kabir ¿Rusbiz.com

With the rapid down fall of world economy and dot-com companies
in recent years many brick-and-mortar companies and new
start-ups ask themselves: To Be Online or Not to Be Online?

Not long time ago, I read a comment of a well-known industry
observer, where he stated that companies that are not selling
through Internet by 2007 will probably become extinct. As
dramatic as it might feel, although exaggerated, but there are
some truths in it.

Consider this: Although diminishing due to bad economy, average
growth of e-commerce is around 25 % per year. 81% of small
businesses that have an online presence during last year’s
holiday season reached new customers, leading to an increase
in sales and profitability according to a survey conducted by
Harris Interactive. Thirty percent of small businesses with a
web presence and fewer than 20 employees now generate more than
25% of their revenue online claims Gartner research.

If this does not convince you to take your business online,
below I pointed out 10 more reasons why you should start doing
business online right now.

1. New economy

Internet has created a new economy, which by its explosive
growth and sheer size already changed our perception of
traditional way of doing business. Companies like Amazon and Ebay
have successfully created domination on areas, where just few
years ago traditional brick-and-mortar companies were kings.
However, in order to be successful on the net, you don’t have
to be a giant like them. Many small and mid-size companies managed
to build online businesses quite profitably. In fact, studies
show small and mid-size companies will be the main growth force
of e-commerce in coming years.

2. Internet is a perfect venue for business

In order to make a sale you need visitors to come to your shop.
On the Internet, your shop could be only a click away from your
prospective customers. With proper marketing your Internet
storefront can have more buyers than you ever can get in a brick
and mortar shop.

3. Company’s image

Whether you sell products or services online or not, in today’s
world you have to have a corporate presence on the Internet.
Otherwise, as you must have noticed that people simply don’t take
your business seriously if you tell them that your company does
not have a website. A nice corporate site definitely increases
the image of a company especially if it has great product or
service related content to go with.

4. Provide better customer support

Customer accusation and retention is one of the key factors of
business value chain. Thanks to Internet technology, business
can provide customer support more effectively. This means better
customer satisfaction and increase of profitability.

5. Make information more easily available to customers.

Just a couple of years ago, companies used to require days to
deliver products or services update information to their
customers. Things have changed since then. Today you can add
or make any changes to your company and product related
content virtually in a matter of couple of hours, publish on
your site and share with the whole world.

6. Cut costs

New technologies allow you to take virtually any part of your
business online, that include supply chain management,
billing, shipping, procurement etc. Streamlining these business
processes through online systems will allow companies to cut
costs significantly in almost every sphere of any business.
For example: companies can reduce more than five percents of
their maintenance, repair and operation costs by adopting
e-business solutions. This five percent savings can turn into
50% of a company’s net profit!

7. Ability to do business 24 hours

How else you can continue making sales, while your stuffs
are sleeping! The biggest advantages of online shops are that
they are open 24 hours a day year round. Thanks to Internet
off time, when your shop is generally closed, sales in some
cases can be more than your regular business hours!

8. Low start up costs

Building a web site does not require big investments. There
are many low cost tools available today, which can help you
create sites from very scratch. Many business portals allow
you to build web sites from templates. For less than 100$/month
you can have a full-fledged corporate e-business site with
all e-commerce features!

9. You physical presence could be in any location

The World Wide Web allows you to do business from any part
of the world. Your physical location, except for few cases
is not that important since you conduct your business online.

10. Go global

Thanks to Internet you can instantly become a global player.
In fact, you don’t have to invest large sums of money to do this.
There are literally hundreds of vertical and horizontal
e-marketplaces available on the net. These marketplaces allow
you for a nominal fee to get access to a large audience of
prospective customers from all over the world. According to
AMR Research more than 1,3$ trillion of good and services will
flow through the B2B marketplaces. Who does not want a piece
of this pie!

The right determinant of e-business success is the same like
any off line business. You have to have a great idea, you
have to have a business plan, there should be a value
proposition for prospective clients and you should have belief
in it and your ability!

Getting online is becoming cheaper and easier thanks to
emergence of new technologies but marketing on the Internet
is becoming more expensive.
Take your business online now, before the marketing costs become
way too expensive for small companies.

About the author

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO
of Rusbiz.com. He has Ph. D. degree in Information Technology.
Dr. Kabir has over 12 years of experience in International Trade
and has worked as an advisor to several government projects.
You can contact him at mailto:nowshade@rusbiz.com,
http://www.rusbiz.com