Businesses persuaded to have online presence

Nov 18 2010 by John Hill, The Journal

THE UK is one of the world's leaders for e-commerce. However, about 1.5 million small businesses have still not set up their own website.

This is a situation that companies like Google, BT, e-skills UK and Enterprise UK are looking to rectify by setting up Getting British Business Online (GBBO), a joint initiative that aims to get 100,000 UK organisations to take the plunge by the end of the year.

As part of the scheme, GBBO is holding breakfast events across the country.

Derek Scobie, Google’s industry head of fast-moving consumer goods and healthcare, will be among the speakers at the Gateshead Maingate Team Valley Regus Centre tomorrow. . The event will take place from 8.30am.

Scobie said: “I don’t think the issue is wariness. Entrepreneurs are dynamic people and know what it takes to make their business work. I suspect they think it may be too expensive to set up a site and require too much technical expertise.

“This initiative is fundamentally focused on the first step of making sure people can be found on the internet.

“We’re working with more than 1,000 partners on a local level and we’re going to provide people with a list of local providers who can help businesses develop something more specific for their businesses.”

The Connected Kingdom report by the Boston Consulting Group suggests the internet contributed £100bn to the UK economy in 2009, which amounts to 7.2% of GDP.

A total of 60% of this came from online shopping and spending on internet access, making the UK a world leader in the e-commerce field. E-commerce and internet businesses have an annual revenue of £50bn.

The Google-commissioned report said the UK’s internet economy is larger than construction, transport or utilities, and is expected to grow by 10% a year, hitting 10% of GDP by 2015.

Nearly a third of internet users have also accessed the internet from their mobile handsets, up from 23% in 2009.

The initiative has already assisted 90,000 businesses to design and launch their own site, and the free event pledges to help businesses to learn skills to create their own website in as little as 20 minutes.

North East photographer Katie Byram set up her own site after learning about Getting British Business Online through the Google search engine. She said: “Being a new business, I couldn’t afford to spend hundreds on a web designer and was impressed by some of the examples on the homepage.

“I found the whole website building process quick, and I’m very pleased with the professional result.

“Having a web presence has definitely led to new business, and quite a few people have contacted me through the site.

“I’d definitely recommend Getting British Business Online to other people trying to start their own business.”