Web of opportunity

Glen Beh director of Custom Decks. Photo / Doug Sherring

The internet is still an untapped resource for most Kiwi businesses but those that have taken the plunge are singing its praises.

A recent MYOB Business Monitor survey of 1000 firms shows that only 34 per cent have a website and just 20 per cent use e-commerce.

Managing director of web design company Labyrinth Solutions, Vaughan Reed, said New Zealand was behind the eight-ball. Resistance came mainly from "old school" managing directors.

Professor of Information Systems at the University of Auckland Business School, Michael Myers, blamed the slow uptake on technology and a lack of people infrastructure. Small businesses were not aware of how they could take advantage of the internet.

"You can employ a web developer but before that you need to know what you can do."

Online shopping had struggled in New Zealand because it took off about the same time as the dot-com crash in the 1990s.

Reed said a successful website required regular updating to boost its Google ranking and this was beyond the means of some businesses.

"Most systems have been developed by developers for developers and it alienates non-technical people from easily managing the site."

It was why he had come up with Contegro, a DIY system that allows businesses to design and maintain their own sites.

Within half an hour of setting up its website four years ago, North Shore deck and fence company Custom Decks was getting phone calls, director Glen Beh said.

The site gave him two quotes a day and was so effective that he limited his advertising elsewhere. Beh spent about $1000 a year advertising on Finder and Google, which directed traffic to his site.

James McComb, online communications manager for the Bond and Bond and Noel Leeming group, said New Zealanders were reluctant to embrace online shopping when his company's sites started in 2005, but "phenomenal" growth in the past 18 months showed users had accepted the medium.

"The online stores are a value-add to our retail chain," McComb said. "The customers are different. Those in-store need more support but people on the web want to choose from a range of products."

The business monitor survey showed 44 per cent of businesses with a website achieved more sales or orders in the following three months compared with just 30 per cent of those that weren't online.