How to Make the Most of the Mobile Web for Your SME

Small and medium-sized enterprises aren’t all tech-happy startup companies with custom websites. Many are still behind the curve when it comes to using the internet to support and grow their business.
 

Is your company one of those SMEs that hasn’t taken advantage of the internet yet? If so, you’re not alone; recent research data from hibu shows that 45% of UK small and medium-sized businesses have no website at all. Another 45% do have a website, but haven’t yet optimised it for mobile devices. 

Taken together, these two facts mean that only 1 in 10 SMEs in the UK are ready to welcome mobile device users to their website – and the other 9 in 10 businesses are missing a huge opportunity. 

Why Are You Missing Out?

The companies surveyed knew what they were missing.

UK SMEs with no website at all said they believed their annual revenues would be an average of 5.4% higher if they had a mobile-optimised website to encourage transactions on mobile devices. And the businesses with a website lacking mobile optimisation reported they believed their annual revenues could still be increased by 3.5% if they added mobile transaction functionality to their websites. 

Even among the 1 in 10 companies with a mobile display optimised website, only 4 in 10 had implemented fully functional mobile transaction processing on their site. In other words, only 4% of the UK’s small and medium-sized businesses are taking advantage of mobile transactions.

 

Why does this matter? Because an increasing number of searches and sales are made through mobile internet, and this trend looks set to continue for some time. More than half of the UK’s internet use is now happening via mobile, and SMEs need to keep up with their customers. 

So what’s holding the UK’s normally resourceful small and medium-sized businesses back from setting up a website that supports mobile transactions? Often it’s a simple lack of time and resources, or a lack of expertise in web development. 

Don’t let that keep you from growing your revenue – outsource the development work if necessary, because the sooner you step into mobile transactions, the sooner you’ll leave your competition behind. 

360ict provides expert advice, managed IT services and support to SMEs in central London and the surrounding South East. Give us a call on 0208 663 4000 to discuss how we can boost your business.