SME website presence up 20%

Up to 65% of SMEs have a functioning website, up from 45% in 2008, according to a new study.

In a brief presentation at the Innovation Centre in Pretoria, Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, said that SME’s established for more than 10 years were more likely to have a website than start-ups.

The research, conducted among 1,007 SME decision makers, found that 68% of small businesses who had a web presence considered themselves as competitive and 45% ‘highly competitive – this against 59% and 38%, respectively, for those businesses without a website.

Goldstuck said that 79% of respondents with a website said they were profitable, against 59% who were not online; while 30% of those firms online were ‘strongly’ profitable, against 14% who lacked a website.