Every company needs a viable online presence

If your business does not have a presence online, better get with it.

Every business should have a Web presence, experts say. Increasingly that's where shoppers, competitors and prospective business partners can be found.

For $1,000 to $5,000, you can put your company online, either by yourself if you're savvy or by hiring a professional Web development team, said Hardy Koska, a counselor at Richmond SCORE, which advises small businesses.

If you're not convinced that your company should have a presence online, consider this:

More people than ever use the Internet. Nielsen Online reports that 72.5 percent of the U.S. population, about 220.1 million people, uses the Internet now, up from 58 percent of the population, or 167.2 million people, in 2002.

The advent of faster connectivity has made the Web a viable tool for searching for what people want, said Phil Hess, director of business development at Web Strategies Inc., a Chesterfield County Web site development and marketing firm.

Nielsen Online said Americans like to shop online because the stores are open 24/7, doing so saves time and gas, and it lets them comparison shop and avoid crowds.

Koska added that widespread awareness of the Internet and the ease of using it make it a popular medium.

Prospective customers and clients check out companies' Web sites first. They will do that before contacting your company, Hess said. "It's important to have the credibility associated with a viable Web presence."

Koska said people want to see a presentation of your company and what it offers. Not all companies sell online, though. Some use a site to direct traffic to their bricks-and-mortar facility.

Even if you don't intend to sell on the Web, it's still a good idea to use all the marketing mediums at your disposal, Hess said.

Online retail sales grow, sometimes despite tough economic times. Business-to-consumer U.S. sales excluding travel grew 21 percent to $175 billion in 2007, Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., said in its "State of Retailing Online 2008" report.

Forrester projected 2008 sales of $204 billion and said that during the next five years, annual sales may top out at $300 billion.

Bill MacElroy, president of Socratic Technologies Inc. in San Francisco, an online market research firm, said Internet retail sales for 2008 probably won't be reported until February, after customers finish returning products.

But preliminary indications are that 2008 sales may increase 5 percent on average for online retailers versus a decline of about the same amount for bricks-and-mortar retailers.

Several sites, including Amazon, Best Buy, Sears, Netflix and ToysRUs, reported hefty increases in visitation on Cyber Monday, Nielsen Online said.

The recession and other factors have tempered online spending. From January through October, online spending rose 9 percent to $102.1 million versus $93.5 million in 2007, marketing research company comScore Inc. of Reston reported. But despite spending gains over the key shopping days that included Black Friday and Cyber Monday, comScore forecasts flat November through December year-over-year spending.

Web shoppers have evolved to buying bigger, more expensive -- and previously difficult-to-sell-online -- products. Forrester Research said most consumers start out buying books, computer-related products, music, videos, airline tickets, electronics and things to wear.

Increasingly, more experienced online shoppers are buying toys, jewelry, sporting goods, food, furniture, even cars and large home appliances.

It's easy to check out what creating a Web site involves. Go to http://www.richmondscore.org. Click "Online Learning," then "eCommerce for Your Biz."