This article talks about the merits of having a web presence for your business - no matter how small or big you are, no matter how well known your business is to the world, no matter how much of publicity you are carrying out via the press, media and other means.

Twelve years ago not many had heard of the Internet. Today, most of us are aware of the Internet and know that it is the fastest and most cost-effective medium of communication. Having been involved with the Internet since 1995, we have watched it grow from a very simple & quick way of sending email to a sophisticated medium of communication.

The growth of the Internet introduced the World Wide Web - the web of websites displaying information that is accessible at mouse clicks.

The Internet, today, is one of the first places a person who has access to a computer will go, to get information. It is often said that the Internet is information. Whether it's information on health tips, art & culture, or a specific product or service, the world wide web is the place everyone looks to for information.

Businesses worldwide have taken on this economical, yet effective, means of advertising and mass communication, and are using it extensively for providing information about their products & services. The days are not far when every business will appear on the Internet in some form or the other.

The web is becoming the preferred method of choice to shop and research products and services, and business that are not on the web, no matter how big or small, will soon become yesterday's news.

Several tools and technologies have evolved that enable a business to display information and provide online interaction facilities through easily created web sites that have dynamic and interactive contents and complex functionalities. There has been an amazing growth in web functionality/technology, though the cost of implementing these functionalities have reduced considerably with time. In the late 90’s it was not unusual for a company to spend a few hundred thousands of rupees to build an eCommerce website. Today, any business, small or large, can have an Internet catalog or eCommerce web site for as low as 70,000 rupees. This has been possible due to volume of scale and reduction in cost of technology with more and more businesses now opting for online presence, and an increase in the number of service providers.

One of the questions we are often asked is - What are the benefits of having a business web site?

Through this article we essentially trying to answer this question. Though, in this article I we are talking mainly about businesses, what is written here applies equally to other organizations viz. non-profit organizations, societies, government organizations, etc. who can read and perceive this article in their context.

A virtual shop is your shop on the internet. It is not a physical store and hence does not require you to buy expensive property in an expensive market place. It is a piece of software hosted on an internet server that runs 7 days a week, 24 hours a day and is accessible to anyone anywhere in the world at any time of the day. It is a shop which never sleeps.

A virtual shop is a way of extending a physically existing shop to reach out to a large set of other wise untapped customer base. And the initial and running costs are so less that it never hurts to open one. So, why reject the possibility of an extended avenue for fetching business if it merely entails an investment of a few thousand rupees. Even if you add a few new customers through your virtual shop, your investment in it is recovered.

Remember, as we have mentioned earlier, there are thousands of potential customers who surf the internet on a daily basis in search of products and services that they are planning to buy. Many buyers are now-a-days finding it more convenient and less stressful to surf the internet for reviewing product profiles and taking buying decisions. By not being present on the internet, you are killing your chances of getting spotted by these customers, whom you cannot afford to ignore. In today’s competitive world, each customer is important and with one customer you can build several customers.

With the widespread penetration of computers in India and easy access to the Internet from home, office and cyber cafes, hundreds of thousands of Indians are now finding it more convenient to use the internet for their requirements. These customers hate to drive down to today’s crowded market places (where it is very difficult to even find a place to park), struggle amongst the crowd of customers in a small-sized shop to review the products they wish to buy. Some customers are even shy of asking the price of each and every item, though they would like to - such customers prefer to make their buying decisions from the comfort of their office desk or their home where they can review the photos of the various product designs vis-à-vis their price and take a better decision to suit their pocket and taste.

Further, there are several bulk buyers/traders who are always on the look out for good suppliers/manufacturers These traders often operate at a bigger scale catering to the export market or the large volume metro market. They spend a lot of time surfing the internet in search of better suppliers and better deals, and can fetch you bulk orders. By not being present on the web, you are missing the opportunity of getting noticed by such bulk buyers who may find your products appealing and may get interested in you.