For Lori Crowshaw, owner of Atlantic Flag and Banner in East Providence using a computer to ship products across the country has become second nature. ”We have been doing this for almost three years,” she said. “We haven’t had any problems, and have really been able to get our name out there.”
Though Crowshaw said Internet sales are only a small part of the day-to-day business, she said it has helped many Web-surfers get general information about the store.
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”It’s just a tool,” she said.
But according to a recent survey conducted at St. Louis University for the National Association of Independent Business — only one in six small businesses have a “formal presence” on the Internet.
In addition, less than half of those with a Web site are using it to sell goods or services over the Internet– leading some researchers to believe that a vast number of small businesses aren’t doing what Crowshaw is – using the Internet as a tool.
This week’s Providence Business News Executive Poll, found similar results as most respondents acknowledged having a company Web site, but few used it for e-commerce, and even less used the Internet to expand the company’s marketplace.
According to Dr. Jerome Katz, a Murray Professor of Management at St. Louis University and author of the study, these statistics aren’t surprising.
”Relatively few small firms have incorporated e-commerce as part of their overall business strategies,” said. Katz. “It appears that most of those with Web sites have established them as a passive, defensive presence.”
He continued, “In many cases, business owners launch their Web sites primarily because ‘everyone is doing it.’ The Web site exists- not because the business owner has thought about how the Internet, its functions and technologies can reinforce and enhance the business strategy- but simply because ‘it’s the thing to do.'”
The study found that only 170 of the sample of 1,055 business in the study even have a Web site – the essential component for e-commerce. Of those 170, only 77 sold goods or services over the Internet. Of those 77 firms, 28 had still never bought anything over the Internet.
The only exception, according to the study are the small number of “dot com” firms, whose very existence depends on the Internet.
David and Shirley Horton, owners of Horton Seafood in East Providence said that though they have done some on-line advertising through local Web pages like Ocean State On Line and About Rhode Island dot-com, creating their own Web page has taken a back seat to the bricks and motor part of the business.
”I would like to do it myself, but I just don’t have the knowledge yet,” Shirley said. ”Finding someone to help me has been difficult and to have someone do it for us would be expensive.”
The Hortons aren’t alone. According to the survey, small businesses more advanced in their use of Internet services are those where the business owner is more comfortable with technology and the owner has help from and Internet expert outside the business.
Having an expert, it said in the study, “leaves the owner to concentrate on the rest of the business and on those aspects of the Internet business where the owner’s perspective can make the biggest difference.”
But those experts come with a heavy price tag. Add to that the cost of the computer itself, Internet service, and related equipment like a printer, scanner and software and for some the cost is too great.
”We just can’t afford it,” said Matt Tosone, who helps his father run Jordan’s Beverage Service Inc. on Taunton Avenue in East Providence, of the Internet. “We are such a little business. It’s harder to advertise on the Internet, and for us advertising is very important.”
According to the study, besides cost, there are three other major reasons that small business are reluctant to get on-line: the possibility of credit card fraud; concern over the legitimacy; other firms seeking sales over the Internet; and the inability of customers to check out a product or service before buying it.
Crowshaw said a lack of security is the least of her worries on the Internet.
”It seems to me that the hackers go to the bigger sites, and kind of leave us little guys alone,” she said. “I think what it comes down to is having a good server and being able to adapt your site to the needs of your customers.”
The customer base in another area in which on-line small businesses aren’t taking advantage of the Internet. According to the survey, small business remains primarily local whether the individual firms are on the Internet or not, with 69 percent of firms with an Internet presence still seeing their primary market as local or regional.
”The Internet is beginning to make a difference in getting business to expand their market horizons, but a long way remains to go,” is one quote in the survey.
Still Crowshaw said no matter how much of her business is done on the Internet, her North Broadway showroom will always be the focus of the business.
”We’ve been doing business this way for 16 years, and nothing can change that,” she said. “I will always want people to come to the store.”
