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This holiday season the road to riches for many local businesses will traverse cyberspace. Although e-commerce often is seen as the province of large companies, it has become a highly successful way for many small businesses to increase their reach. A Harris Poll found that 81 percent of small businesses online during the 2001 holiday season reached new customers. Sixty-one percent experienced sales increases by up to 20 percent, and 54 percent said e-commerce increased profitability. But local leaders agree that the road to cyberspace is not without a few potholes. Doing proper research — from what Web design house to use to how best to present information online — is probably the single biggest hurdle for those new to e-commerce, business owners say. For example, Jackye Compiseno, co-owner of scented, hand-poured candle maker Copper Creek Creations, didn't know there were different kinds of Internet "shopping carts." "We took the shopping cart that came with the company that hosted our Web site," said Compiseno, who started the site eight months ago after repeated requests from customers. "We thought that they are all the same and didn't do enough shopping around. Our customers were finding it too cumbersome." Compiseno, whose company is based in Chandler, said she is getting a lot of hits on her site, but those have not yet translated into sales. Although she accepts checks, money orders and the third-party service PayPal, the site does not accept credit cards — something she plans to remedy in the future. Clare Willis, owner of Clare's Coloring Cottage in Mesa, thought she communicated what she wanted to her Web designer, but her original site still was not what she had in mind. "I started with a storefront template, which was very limited in what it could do," said Willis, who sells museum-quality coloring books. "You couldn't click on a book and get more information about that book and the picture wasn't clear. We worked back and forth to get it right." She said her biggest difficulty is estimating how many books will be sold via the Web each month. "I almost have a grip on it now," she said. "You don't have your cousin design your Web site, you go to a professional design company," said Francie Carney, founder and president of Office Without Walls, a Scottsdale marketing and graphic design firm. "It's a huge investment, and you can't make your decision solely on price. If you spend only $2,000 now, you'll be spending $2,000 again a year from now." Carney also emphasized the importance on getting the right search engines to bring customers to your site. Laura Calderon, president and founder of Lil Bear Shoppe in Gilbert, said she uses a pay-per-click service to draw potential customers. Her company, which sells teddy bears and gift baskets, got involved with e-commerce three years ago, and tripled its line from 100 to 300 products. And the healthy sales increases are continuing. "The most difficult part was learning how e-commerce works since it is so different from brick and mortar stores," she said. "It's so new that we didn't know what was the best method to use: We don't do a lot of outside advertising through print." Sometimes the best advertising can be one's own Web site, as Farnam Cos., of Phoenix, recently discovered. A serviceman stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan, took two of the company's flytraps with him. When he realized the magnitude of the need there, he checked the Web site and discovered products better suited to manage the battle with flies. "Our exposure to a global audience is multiplied based on our Web site," said Farnam spokeswoman Gina DePinto. "We now have a database of thousands of names." © 2002 American City Business Journals Inc.
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