These days, millions of small business owners across the country are fully aware of the e-commerce revolution that’s now under way, but haven’t necessarily moved to take advantage of it themselves. For this reason, it might be wise for companies to make sure they’re doing all they can to help move this process along to take advantage of consumers’ evolving preferences.
Today, about 30 percent of small business owners say they expect at least a quarter of their sales during the holiday shopping season to come from e-commerce, according to a new survey from Duda, a leading DIY website builder for internet professionals and small businesses. Further, 14 percent say that they think more than half their revenues will come from this kind of transaction.
Will companies take advantage?
Despite the move toward this kind of positive standing, many companies haven’t done enough to capture this aspect of the market, the report said. This may be because they don’t think they can keep up with the industry’s giants, but experts generally agree that by offering even small discounts and doing more to promote these deals through social networks, there might still be significant ways in which even the tiniest local company can reach a wider audience, and consequently boost their chances of increasing sales and revenues. That, in turn, could lead to significant success going forward.
“It’s not just big companies like Amazon that are going to benefit from online sales this holiday season,” said Itai Sadan, co-founder and CEO of Duda. “Small businesses across the country, especially those that have prioritized their online presence, stand to gain a lot of revenue given the increasing desire by consumers to bypass in-store lines and shop online. In addition to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday – this year on November 29 – is a great time for consumers to support their local small businesses.”
Boosting this kind of effort might take a little capital to start, and as such it might be wise for owners to consider finding new avenues to free up money, such as finding more affordable small business insurance. By doing something along these lines, such as cutting costs for general liability insurance, they may be able to save thousands of dollars per year that can then be devoted to other aspects of the company’s e-commerce expansion efforts.
