HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2007-11-22, Page 7Continued from page 1of on-line shopping is understood,local businesses can take advantageand tailor their website towardstheir overall marketing plan, notnecessarily just being an on-lineshop or a limited information hub.
“Where businesses in Huron
County are coming up a bit short is
that the vast majority of them are
not on-line. Now, if a customer is
looking to do the browsing, do the
research, before they go out and
buy something, and the Huron
County businesses aren’t even
on-line, they’re taking themselves
out of it before it even starts,”
Niesen said.
“I don’t want to say that it isn’t a
priority, but it seems to be a lower
priority than most of the things a
local entrepreneur has to do on a
daily basis. I mean, they’re strapped
for time and before they make a
decision about putting up a website,
they want to know a little more
about it, and it becomes part of the
ever-growing to-do list. If you’re a
business-owner, you’re never going
to find that time, and since they
don’t understand it, it becomes less
of a priority to them than it should
be.”
Niesen guesses that
approximately 50 per cent of the
businesses in Huron County maybe
have on-line presence, but that just
25 per cent have maintained,
updated websites that are useful.
A decade ago, he said, a lot
of businesses jumped on the
internet bandwagon, but what they
were dealing with was the
perception that they should put up a
website and the world would come
to their door.
“Of course, the world didn’t come
to their door, because it’s a case of
using the internet for the best
purpose of your business and you
don’t actually have to sell anything
on-line to use your internet,” he
said.
These were the kinds of things
that weren’t pitched originally,
Niesen said.
“The pitch was that they sell their
products on-line, and that’s
completely different and never
really materialized. Sales never
happened and they lost interest. But
a lot of it had to do with the web
developers who weren’t necessarily
marketers and didn’t incorporate the website into the marketingstrategy of the business and that’swhere it broke down.”The HBDC’s broadband initiativethat was recently approved by theprovincial government should bring
broadband accessibility in the area
to nearly 100 per cent by next year,
and was touted as a business
opportunity for local businesses as
well as for local consumers. Niesen,
however, doesn’t think that this
expansion will make much of a
difference.
“I want to say that it will make a
difference, but having said that, this
broadband application is basically
designed to take the county to
virtually 100 per cent accessibility.
A significant portion of the county
is accessible already, so I’m not
sure that going from a significant
portion to a higher portion is going
to make that much of a difference,”
he said.
A lot of local business owners, he
feels, have not kept up with
the consumer’s habits and
preferences.
“Consumers have demonstrated
that they prefer to shop on-line in a
lot of cases. Before they go out,
they like to do their research, and if
you don’t have a presence there,
you’re being taken out of the mix.”
Not being on-line is a large factor,
but Niesen comes back to the
inconvenient hours and cites limited
product selection and poor
communication of selection as
another way local businesses aren’t
staying with the times.
“I don’t think that the small
businesses are doing a great job of
understanding their consumers and
what they’re asking for. The hours
are the start of it, but it goes all the
way through to the product
selection they have, and while it
might be harsh, I think a significant
portion of businesses are operating
today the same way they were
operating 10 and 20 years ago,” he
said.
Various studies show, according
to Niesen, consumers don’t need to
walk out with the product. If they
want it, and know you can get it in
a few days, they’re willing to wait,
but I don’t think we, as the small
business owners, are doing a good
job of telling people what we can
get for them. We have limited shelfspace and we have limitedinventory, so people walk in andthink there’s a much biggerselection in London or Kitchener,which might be true, at least on thesurface, but under the surface, that
small business might be able to get
the same things, maybe even
more, it’s just not being
communicated.”
Bev Elliott, local merchant, says
that for the rest of November until
Christmas, she will be open seven
days a week.
With most of the inventory she
carries being unique and one of a
kind, she hopes that her selection
will trump the big box stores.
Jennifer Avery, another local
business owner has similar
thoughts, saying that her selection,
widely unavailable at mainstream
department stores, helps to elevate
her game for the Christmas
season.
In addition to selection and hour
expansion, special events in the
coming weeks are in the process of
being planned to attract consumers
to their businesses.
Hour expansion is a big factor, but
Niesen still contests that it shouldn’t
be a Christmas idea, it should be
year-round.
“I think to say that it’s people
going across the border because of
the strong dollar, or people saying
it’s London or people saying it’s on-
line shopping, I mean, it’s human to
point fingers, but first we need to
look within. That’s the best advice I
can give, find out what your
customers are looking for and make
an honest assessment on what
you’re doing to deliver it to them,”
Niesen said.
Consistently in the business
retention expansion surveys, and
HBDC has several in numerous
communities, virtually every one
has people asking for better hours,
and the business community hasn’t
really responded yet, Niesen
said.
“So, we have to look within andask, ‘What are we doing to give thecustomers what they want? Are we trying to do business on ourterms or are we trying to do business on their terms?’ If theanswer is that we’re trying to do iton our terms, there’s yourexplanation as to why things mightbe hurting a bit.”THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2007. PAGE 7.Niesen explains where businesses fall short
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