A recent survey by online search directory Touch Local showed that over two-thirds of shoppers would prefer to buy from their local stores, but convenience still comes out as an essential requirement.

The report also showed that shoppers now prefer to shop online - they have “come of age”, are used to it, and it provides them with the convenience they seek - and also went on to say that, with an estimated £1.5billion in online sales predicted for this year, many local stores are missing out on a valuable revenue stream.

Number of shoppers who prefer to shop locally: Just under 50%
Number of local shops offering online shopping: 31%
Number of local shops websites accepting credit cards: 6%
Number of shops not offering online shopping: 69%

“The people of Britain clearly want to shop locally - and we are all for helping boost local economy and supporting local traders - but we are pushed for time,” said Tony Piedade, commercial director for Touch Local. Piedade said most firms shun online retail because of fears about the cost of building and maintaining a website, a lack of marketing funds and the red tape involved in acquiring an internet merchant account number needed to trade via the internet.

There’s no quick fix to the costs issue - small businesses have to budget carefully, but, in our opinion, they should be looking to include a budget for the web in their financial projections. The design and set-up of a website is a fixed cost, and depending on whether you go for open source, a commercial product or bespoke you could budget a figure ranging from £1000-£5000 (but talk to your local web agency first to get an idea of their figure). As you can see from our Internet Maturity Model, the first step should always be a marketing website (an online brochure) and you can then add e-commerce when you are ready. Ongoing maintenance can be made simpler through the right choice of an online solution, so that you don’t need to spend hours in front of a computer maintaining the system and fulfilling orders. There are ways to build in simple extensions such as order-to-fax where new orders are sent to fax machines, so you can have a ready-made distribution list without even needing to switch on a PC (or even send the details straight to a fulfilment company); SMS alerts; and many more.

Acquiring an Internet Trading Account (Internet Merchant Account) does require some form filling, but companies such as WorldPay make the process straightforward and offer a decision within 7-10 days. For the lower volume trader, a PayPal account is free to open and allows you to test the water and accept credit cards. It’s not as seamless as a true credit card payment system, but it’s widespread and people are quite used to it - you could even argue that it says “local” more than the big guys :)

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