There are many good reasons for having a website, no matter what the size of your business. These include:
- Create new sales or business leads
- Public relations - a website functions as a "company brochure"
- Ability to fully explain your products and services
- Enable users to do research on your goods and services
- Create corporate identity and build employee morale
- Supplement customers assistance programs by offering product use guides and answers to frequently asked questions
- Designed to function as an Intranet, enabling employees to access passwords protected areas while away from the business
- Serve as center for online employee training
Audience potential for your site
Nielsen/NetRatings offers the most detailed and comprehensive statistics on the Internet use. They report the following statistics for the United States during January/00:
- 30.6 million users in the workplace were active on the Internet
- 77 million users at home were active on the Internet
- 122.6 million additional users are deemed to have access, but did not go on line during the month
CyberDialogue, an Internet market research firm, recently reported their project estimates of future Internet use. Under their Aggressive Scenario, 63% of US adults in 2003 will have Internet access. Under their conservative estimate 53% of US adults will be online in 2003. This conservative estimate translates to approximately 150 million adults in the US who will be connected.
Statistics like the following by ActivMedia Research, are the type that cause business firms, especially those that are in retail commerce and not on the Internet, to take notice:
Projected Online Revenues by 2005 (in $ billion)
- Health/Beauty = 25.1
- Healthcare/Prescriptions = 33.5
- Pet Supplies = 10.5
- Groceries/Supplies = 29.3
- Gourmet Food/Wine = 20.9
- All Consumable Goods = 119.3
