New research on the UK SME retail market indicates that trading online has become more profitable and less costly to implement, but fewer retailers are taking the opportunity.

According to the latest annual survey by Actinic:

• 90% of company websites are profitable
• Only one in ten retailers have a transactional website and amongst those who accept telephone orders, only one in four have an e-commerce facility.
• On average companies paid 40% less than expected for their e-commerce solution. The average anticipated cost was £2416, whereas the average price paid was only £1585.
• 45% of companies built their own e-commerce website, and of the remainder 85% used a website designer.
• 10% of retailers think that online shoppers are lazy – with 75% of retailers perceiving the reason customers shop online to be convenience, not price.
• The number of retailers with e-commerce sites had risen from 8% of companies in 2005 to 11% in 2006.

Actinic marketing manager Bruce Townsend commented: “A web presence can give firms a new income stream – it’s quite a compelling proposition from a business point of view. But many firms don’t have the experience or knowledge to build their own sites or be confident about who it should be outsourced to.”

Source: www.bytestart.co.uk, 16 January 2007

For help building your online shop refer to the B2B Centre’s What is Zen Cart article , to learn about a low cost, open source platform for hosting your trading facilities.

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