| December 2004
The vast majority of small businesses with Web sites reported that the Internet helped their business, according to a report released last week by Interland (Nasdaq: INLD, an online services provider for small- to medium-sized enterprises. The Interland survey of 530 small business owners nationwide, revealed that 77 percent of the small businesses surveyed said their Web sites made their businesses healthier, 55 percent said that having a Web site helped their companies weather the economic downturn, and 81 percent reported that a website generates leads for their business.
"We have continued to see the number of small-business websites grow over the past 18 months, with some experts estimating that as many as 75% of all small businesses already have an online presence," said Joel Kocher, CEO and chairman of Interland. "The killer application that this group is now turning to is online marketing tools and services that help them generate leads and convert those leads into sales.
The group was also polled on their anticipated annual revenues generated by their websites in 2004, and it's clear that small businesses expect to profit from the Internet's ability to deliver on its promise as a new sales and marketing channel. More than a quarter (28 percent) say they expect 26 to 100 percent of their annual 2004 revenues to be through online sales; 22 percent say 11 to 25 percent of their sales this year will be driven by their website; and 36 percent say anywhere from 1 to 10 percent of their sales will be generated online. Only 14 percent of those surveyed said they expect their websites to generate no revenue.
Small businesses themselves appear to not be shy about purchasing business products and services they need online. In fact, 85 percent say they do this. The most popular categories they buy on the Internet include office supplies (76%), software (60%), travel (50%), computer hardware (50%), web-hosting/web-site services (41%), broadband/Internet access (37%), print and online publications (36%), advertising/marketing placements (22%), telephony services (17%), data/databases (%), technical support (15%), and professional services such as accounting, marketing and legal services (9%).
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