Even Local Retailers Need an Online Presence

It’s hard to imagine any business not having a presence on the Web, but I still meet business owners from time to time who are convinced that they don’t need a Web site.

By DEBRA KOONTZ TRAVERSO Wall St. Journal

Their clientele, they argue, is made up of local residents; they offer a service or product that the consumer can get only by visiting their store or shop — for example, a customer having his tires rotated, his car detailed or his hair cut. However, I’d argue that there are several auto-service centers and stylists’ shops in most small towns. The day will come (soon) when consumers will comparison-shop on the Web rather than by calling around town to get prices. After all, this is the standard way of living that teenagers — your future customers — are learning right now. Without a Web presence, a small business won’t even be in the running.

As for retail establishments that don’t have a Web site, I find their outlook shortsighted and not in line with forward-thinking management. In almost every area the Web has touched (and what hasn’t it touched?), consumers have been able to benefit from lower prices. Anyone who isn’t convinced that a Web presence is necessary will soon learn that customers’ loyalty will falter in direct proportion to the savings they can realize by shopping on the Web.

The lower overhead of pared-down Internet retail businesses allows them to pass the savings on to the buyer. This means that the only selling edges that traditional stores have are lack of shipping expenses and one-on-one customer service.

Knowing where technology is headed could have positive influences on the way you develop your business. As I write, airlines are offering customers the opportunity to surf the Web from their seats, and GM is planning to equip vehicles with a satellite service that will act as a mobile Internet-service provider. In short, the Internet is omnipresent and should be a reality that you factor into your business if you want to remain competitive.

What to Do

Find out what your competitors are doing on the Web. Then broaden the search and find out what other businesses in other parts of the country are doing. Contact them. Ask them what’s working and what isn’t. When you get an idea of what works for them, establish your own unique Web presence. Then, include your Web-site address on all written materials.

Once you’ve established an online presence, take steps to protect it. Countless companies have been the target of parody or insult sites. Companies are learning that they need to register more than just their own Web site if they want to protect their name from poachers, disgruntled customers and competitors. There are several steps that you can take to protect your company name.

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Register the plural and singular versions.

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Register it with the word "the" in front of the name.

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Register hyphenated versions if it’s a compound name.

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Register misspellings.

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Register with multiple extensions: .com, .net and .org.

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Link all of these registrations to the home page on your "real" Web site.

I can speak from personal experience on this lesson. When my partner and I founded our Internet writing institute, WriteDirections.com, years ago, we only registered one name. After it was too late, we discovered that a free-lance writer had the name WriteDirection.com, and, the same first name as mine. I often wonder how many clients we send her way and how many give up when they discover the site isn’t what they thought they’d get.

What if Your Web Site Crashes?

Imagine sending a catalog in the mail to more than 60 million people offering them free shipping for a specified time if they order from your Web site. Now imagine that when they try to take advantage of the offer within that designated time, the site is inaccessible. If your tarnished image wouldn’t send your heart racing, then the cost of the catalogs and mailing probably would. This situation happened to Toys "R" Us in late 1999. And similar problems have happened to countless other Web-based companies — for example, e-Bay, with its millions of customers, has had to be shut down several times, once for more than 20 hours. Even Amazon.com has been inaccessible at times. Sites crash and fail for several reasons: server failure, programming errors, software problems, human error and others. Small businesses are especially vulnerable to crashes because they generally are involved with a Web-hosting company that has a shared-server environment.

While it’s impossible to be 100% safe, it’s possible to find hosting companies that are more reliable than others. If you can afford dedicated hosting, which means that the host company dedicates a server to your company alone, then do it. Many small businesses can’t do this, however, because fees start at $1,500 per month.

When you talk with a host company, ask a lot of questions. Don’t assume that they all work the same. Ask if your Web site will be protected by two servers, so that if one crashes, all your traffic will be routed to the other one. Ask if your Web site will be monitored every day, and how. Finally, ask for a description of a back-up plan in case there’s a problem.

— Ms. Traverso is a small-business consultant based in Washington, D.C., and the author of "The Small Business Owner’s Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep: Solving Chronic and Costly Problems" (Bloomberg Press, 2001) from which this excerpt has been adapted. Her Web site for small-business owners is OutsmartingGoliath.com.