How the Internet has Changed for Consumers: For starters, people buy online. Let me clarify… people buy online A LOT. In fact, 81% of consumers search for the product they’re looking for online before buying. That means that if you’ve got no website, you’re only ABLE to get one out of every five customers, if they know your location and choose to shop there. To go another step, 55% of purchases occur within an hour of the customer’s initial search. That means that just having a website can not only make your store more visible, but with an online marketplace or presence, you can increase your sales and take a portion of that 55% for yourself. Purchasing isn’t the only important area of the internet you need to focus on, though. Keeping your customers satisfied and garnering good reviews is an equally important task. In a recent survey, a whopping 88% of consumers surveyed put their trust in online reviews, while only 12% choose not to look at reviews online. That means that right off the bat, without good reviews, you’re losing potential clients and customers. When consumers know what they want they search online. They look for deals online. They read reviews online. You NEED an online presence to survive and thrive as a businesses in the market today.
How the Internet has Changed for Businesses:
- Faster Communication — Through the internet, we’re able to talk with large groups of people all across the globe at little to no extra cost. We can video chat, have meetings, share presentations and more without ever even having to get up from our desks.
- Better Marketing — It’s now much easier to get feedback from consumers and learn what people want from your products and your brand. You can even specialize different stores based on the needs of the surrounding areas.
- More Thorough Records — From employee background checks to stocks to inventory, businesses are able to finally have minute-by-minute updates. Never before has information been so readily at our fingertips. This becomes even more true when looking at all the many possibilities created by the Internet of Things.
- Bigger Brand Awareness — What used to be television, radio, and billboard ads has now expanded into internet ads, targeted based on previous purchases and searches. The internet is now the biggest way to get your brand known both globally and locally and even keep it relevant to the ever-changing world.
- New Information Available — Where once we’d have to search through encyclopedias or talk to experts, now we can simply search online. Never before have we been able to find anything and everything we needed to online.