A new study reinforces the importance of small businesses entering the digital age.
The digital revolution has taken hold, and small businesses better get on board.
That’s what a new survey from Vistaprint Digital Services has found. Whereas small businesses might once have been able to get by on word of mouth and a few ads, more and more consumers are now gravitating toward those with a strong online presence, according to the survey.
Small businesses are notoriously slow to adopt technology. In fact, about half don’t even have a website, according to a different report from Clutch. And that’s costing them customers.
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Here are some of the survey’s most interesting findings:
- More than 36 percent of respondents said they first find a small business online—1 percentage point more than word of mouth.
- Three in five say it’s important for small businesses to have a social media presence.
- Forty-five percent are unlikely to shop at a business with a poor website. As for millennials, only 5 percent said they’d be very likely to visit a business with a poorly designed site.
- Seventy-five percent said reading reviews before visiting a store is important, and 50 percent said bad reviews would likely prevent them from shopping at a small business.
- A quarter of millennials use social media to find small businesses—whereas less than 8 percent of baby boomers do.
- One in five millennials said an inconvenient location would be a deterrent to shopping at a small business, compared with one in three baby boomers.
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“Small businesses should understand not only that an online presence is vital to helping them reach new audiences, but that a professional and well-maintained presence can be the difference between a customer walking in the door and choosing to shop elsewhere,” said Scott Bowen, vice president and general manager of Vistaprint Digital Services.
