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Can a website boost your sale, increase competitiveness and profitability?
In this day and age, internet has become such an important tool in our society that 18.3 million household in the Uk has internet giving access to 70% of adults .Nowadays we can buy any products or service online.
Consumers have, in the online purchase, a system that save them valuable time, give them information about the product or service and also enable them to get cheaper price through comparison sites.
Product awareness
In this current market-led environment where businesses have to produce goods ad services that will meet the needs to users, they also have to find a way of communicating these to consumers. Through the use of good website, products awareness can be raised. Consumers have direct access to up to date information about your product
Broadened your market place
Having a website will broaden your market place. The business will have a Global market place, therefore reaching more consumers and potentially having more sales. There are no boundaries for  providing your products.
Convenience
Business can be conducted at the convenience of the consumers. Many consumers nowadays have a busy lifestyle and convenience is of great importance to them. The website will act as a 24/7 outlet for consumers to have access to at their own time, purchase in their own time and getting the best value for their desired product.
Trust
Having a website also create a sense of trust within consumers and increase credibility. They have more confidence in companies that they know something about.  A website can act as the face of an organisation.
Cheap advertisement
A website can be the cheapest way to advertise your organisation. Most people have access to the internet .Many small organisations benefit from a website as they have scarce resources to launch marketing campaign. The website helps them in advertising their product and as a direct result increases their sales potential.
Increase competitiveness
Having a website can increase competitiveness through cheaper product. Since the website can act as an outlet, there is reduction in cost for a physical place and staff. This reduction can be passed down to the consumers in terms of lower product price.
Lower prices will attract more customers and increase sales.

Edge over competitors
In the recent years we have seen a surge in search engine such as google,yahoo etc. Many businesses have built their website around engine optimisation so that they can appear first on the search engine.
Consumers only tend to look over the first few pages of the search engine. Companies that have their website listed first on search engines tend to earn more trust from the consumers and tend to do better than other businesses.
The initial cost of setting up a website nowadays is affordable and will be profitable in the long run as this will help businesses save thousands of pounds in administrative cost, advertising campaigns etc.
In the case of the travel industry, we have seen a huge shift in online booking for flights, hotels, car rentals etc. Airline companies have been able to bypass agent to sell their flight thus they are able to provide better prices to consumers. They have been able to cut down on administrative works by providing automated e-tickets where the customers just have to print off their ticket and presents themselves at the airport for their flight.

Having a website nowadays is not a fancy way of doing business but it is a valuable tool for a business to thrive in this ever competitive environment.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=8