A total of 253 businesses in Olds had some form of a web presence as of April 2011, up from 112 the previous year, town council was told last week during its regular meeting.
The findings were presented by Joe Gustafson, chairman of the technology committee of the Olds Institute for Community and Regional Development. He told councillors the two surveys were conducted by the Olds Connected Communities subcommittee and were designed to see how many businesses in town are taking advantage of the opportunities the Internet provides for expanding their sales and marketing.
Gustafson said while the situation has improved there is still much room for further growth.
"It is very promising. We need to grow this web presence,î he said.
Asked by Coun. Wade Bearchell what the barriers are to businesses not having a web presence ñ Bearchell surmised cost is one factor ñ Gustafson said rather than cost being a factor, there is a lack of understanding on the part of business owners of what an effective tool the web can be to expand business.
"We have to get past this idea that we are insular,î Gustafson said, noting that the web can increase sales to a much wider geographic area.
Gustafson also said that rather than businesses thinking in terms of local competition, similar businesses locally should be banding together under an Olds banner to take on competition on a global scale.
Between the time of the two surveys, there was a 273 per cent increase in the number of local businesses that use e-commerce to gain additional revenue. A total of 19 more businesses added blogs to their websites, introducing an additional level of interactivity to their business.
Gustafson said while the 21 businesses that added a capability to do e-commerce may be small, in his opinion that represents a giant shift in the way those businesses will do commerce in the future.
"In actual numbers it may be small, but it is significant in the sense that we've had 20 businesses Ö bringing money from outside the community to this community, or at least the ability to do that, so those are big strides in my mind,î he said.
Gustafson suggested some of the reasons for the improvement are the committee had been working on improving business presence on the web through the champions of technology profiles in both The Albertan and on radio, a technology workshop, a Twitter workshop and educational workshops on how to build a website, among other initiatives.
Gustafson also said the committee did a significant number of visits to businesses to encourage them to take on a web presence.
"Is it all a result of this particular initiative? Who knows Ö but it's a significant enough rise, particularly to have a website presence in that initial category where we had 83 per cent of businesses that did not have a website, we're now down to 53 per cent that don't have a website. So that's a significant stride,î he said.
Gustafson said part of the reason for the survey and all the other work the technology committee and the Connected Communities subcommittee has been doing is to get people thinking about how they might use and benefit from all the infrastructure now being put in place in the community.
Gustafson said more and more business is now being done on the web and he thinks Olds businesses should be a part of that.
"That trend is going to do nothing but grow. To me, it's something that we need to encourage businesses to do because as they do more business outside of the community, they will add capacity to their business,î he said.
"That trend is going to do nothing but grow. To me, it's something that we need to encourage businesses to do because as they do more business outside of the community, they will add capacity to their business."Joe Gustafson, chairman, technology committee, OICRD
