Small Business Finance News

Online Shopping Gave SMB Sales A Boost

Written by Jenna Weiner
Published: 12/29/2009

Online shopping reached unprecedented heights this holiday.

Holly Wade, policy analyst at the National Federation of Independent Business, recently told the Dallas News that for economic recovery, "what [small businesses] need are customers." It may be good news for small business owners that they can find them online.

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Online retail sales for the holiday season are up 3.7 percent to nearly $24.8 billion according to a report from comScore. The biggest online shopping day was December 15, with sales reaching an unprecedented $913 million dollars.

Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman, says the increase in online spending is partially due to "pent-up consumer demand." Still, he greatly attributes growing online shopping - and the phenomenon of Cyber Monday - to "the increasing marketing hoopla and promotional activity."

Experts at Fresh Business Thinking advise small business owners to capitalize on growing online sales by carefully crafting their websites. Fresh Business Thinking officials warn, "If you don't have a website that displays everything you sell, along with availability and price information - and ideally a means of ordering or booking the product or service online -there is a strong chance you will be bypassed in favor of another company."

This could be good advice; MasterCard's SpendingPulse report characterized ecommerce as "one of the stars of the season," and online sales are predicted to continue to shine in the coming year.

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