IT Firm Says U.S. Small Businesses Prefer Buying IT Products Online

AMI Gives Reasons Why

AMI says small businesses in the US are increasingly relying on online channels to purchase computing hardware and packaged software solutions.

“This is a far cry from the days when retail stores and channel partners were the only relevant channels that catered to SBs,” the firm says. “Channel partners and retailers still have the highest share of SB spending on basic computing products (such as PCs, printers, peripherals, etc); these channels, however, are slowly losing share to direct market resellers (DMRS) as well as online vendor direct.”

According to AMI, factors considered in why more small businesses are buying IT products online include:

- The SB PC and printer market is almost fully penetrated (especially in mature countries like the US), so most new purchases are replacements. SBs are therefore more informed and knowledgeable about their needs, making online channels a more efficient buying experience versus visiting a retail store.

-  In addition, the economic downturn forced many SBs to look for channels that offered lower costs for new purchases and upgrades.

These trends, AMI says, are more unique to the US and EMEA markets, while in APAC and other emerging countries, small businesses still prefer to buy from local IT stores (or, storefront VARs) and channel partners.

“Local computer/electronic stores, also known as storefront VARs, still have a strong presence in emerging markets,” says Avinash Arun, Manager of the Channels Practice at AMI. “IT maturity among SBs in emerging countries is low (compared to the Americas and Western Europe), and therefore these firms especially need external support for sustaining their IT environments. The local stores serve the purpose of both a retail store and a channel partner: a small business owner or IT manager can walk into their neighborhood electronic or IT store and have a ‘touch and feel’ experience, while receiving essential service and support for installation, maintenance, troubleshooting, etc.”

Use Fear To Your Advantage

There’s a lot of fear at the minute. Fear of knowing is joining fear of the unknown as a staple in our lives.

Knowing the economy sucks leading to a future unknown.

Knowing we can’t stand around but not knowing what first steps to take.

Knowing you want to try something new but so many unknown things to learn.

But you know, fear is a good thing. Fear is what spurns us to experiment. Fear is what leads us to overcoming hurdles and reaching far higher plateaus on the other side. In short, fear is our friend.

It’s right to be afraid. That’s common sense. We know that we’re not in the greatest of times – anyone who says otherwise isn’t accepting the facts.

But when we accept that truth and face the fear it brings, we can work on it.

We can use the fear.

You may have been laid off. You might be in a job where there are planned redundancies. You might run your own business where clients are shrinking. You might have more time on your hands now than you did three months ago, six months ago. Use it.

Connect that time with your fear. Make yourself a deal that you’ll become master of your own destiny. Use the time to learn new skill sets, to meet new people, to widen your community of knowledge and prospects.

Brush up on your core strengths and add to them. Use the tools around you to see what people are looking for, what businesses are looking for. We have never had so much free information at our fingertips – use it.

The best resource tool on the planet is one mouse-click away. It doesn’t matter if it’s Google, Twitter, a Facebook group, a LinkedIn forum, online community, online encyclopedia or whatever. The tool you need for the fear you have is right there in front of you. All you need to do is find it.

Fear is a stumbling block. But we only stumble if we’re in the dark.

Isn’t it time we switched the lights on?

Businesses May Like to Use Foursquare, But Probably Not Enough to Pay for it

Foursquare Does Offer Opportunities, But Are They Worth Paying For?

There’s no question that there are opportunities for businesses in location-sharing services like Foursquare, Gowalla, and others that continue to pop up. There’s a good chance that businesses will be more apt to use such services to reach customers when they don’t have to pay for them.

Would you pay to use Foursquare as a marketing tool? Let us know.

Matt McGee at Search Engine Land points to some interesting stats regarding business owners and their use of Foursquare. According to these (which came from a presentation at SMX Advanced last week), only 10% of businesses that are already using Foursquare as a free marketing tool would actually pay to use it. Other stats include:

- almost 60% have a total annual advertising budget of less than $2,500 (online and offline spending)
- more than 90% are also on Facebook
- almost 90% use Twitter
- more than 90% have a web site
- almost 80% have claimed their Google Place Page; almost 40% use Yahoo Local, and almost 20% use Bing Maps as marketing tools

The thing about these “check-in” services and other location-based apps is that there is no shortage of them, and more will continue to come out, taking advantage of different aspects of the customer’s mobile experience. Where there are paid services, there will likely be free alternatives. And mobile apps offer such a wide range of uses to consumers, businesses have plenty of ways to reach them through different means.

Slides from that SMX presentation are available here.

Whether or not you’re willing to pay for Foursquare as a marketing tool, you may have a new option for using it in the not-too-distant future.

TechCrunch is reporting that Foursquare will be launching “Add to Foursquare” buttons, which would allow content producers to enable the functionality for users to add places to their Foursquare “to do” lists. This will reportedly only be on the Wall Street Journal at first, however (starting this week).

“I know that I often read about new restaurants online but never remember to put them in my Foursquare to-do list — so this makes a lot of sense,” says TechCrunch’s MG Siegler.

It will be interesting to see if other consumers agree. While the feature will only be available on the Wall Street Journal at first, the company has apparently expressed interest in letting other brands take advantage of it. How widespread that actually becomes is anybody’s guess at this point.

This could potentially help businesses in two ways. First, if you’re business is mentioned in an article, it could potentially be added to a reader’s to do list. Second, if you are the one providing the content, it could mean increased use engagement.

Ad Campaign Tries To Raise Profile Of Self-Employed

NASE targets Washington with bunny slipper pics

Public perception of the self-employed may soon improve, thanks to an ad campaign the National Association for the Self-Employed launched today.  The NASE’s message – which is accompanied by attention-catching images of businesspeople wearing bunny slippers – is that self-employed individuals don’t just sit around the house in their PJs.

The campaign uses the slogan “The self-employed – not so ‘bunny’ anymore” to emphasize the point, and the aim is for this to go viral and influence policymakers in Washington.

The big issues in which the NASE is most interested then include new IRS reporting requirements, a home office tax deduction, and healthcare costs.

As for what else the campaign involves (since a slogan and amusing pics can only go so far), its homepage states, “The self-employed contribute billions of dollars to our economy every year, working in fields like finance, real estate, manufacturing and many more.  Seventy-eight percent of small businesses are self-employed – they play a big part in keeping our economy growing.”

Let’s hope the bunny slippers campaign catches lawmakers’ attention, convinces them of the importance of self-employed individuals, and steers them in the right direction.

It’s Not Too Early To Start Preparing for the Holidays
By Chris Crum – Tue, 06/08/2010 – 3:15pm.

Many Begin Shopping/Researching As Early as August

It’s June, so it must be time to start preparing for the holidays right? Seriously, it’s never to early to start thinking about it when you’re in retail. That’s precisely why Google has run down some takeaways from the 2009 holiday season on its Retail Advertising Blog.

Google reminds us that last year, 44% of shoppers had already started their holiday shopping and researching in August. That’s not so far away. Some other stats the company points out:

- Searches for ‘promo codes’ increased by as much as 55% year-over-year.

- Black Friday searches rose 20% year-over-year as consumers flock online during the traditionally offline shopping event.

- 2 of the top 3 days for online purchases were Mondays.

- In a joint test with Levi’s, Google found that paid search ads, whether or not clicked, raised consumer awareness substantially.

- Half of all new internet connections will come from mobile phones.

- Searches for “buy online, pick up in store” were up by as much as 100% this past December.

Eric Lopez of the Google Retail Team runs these and others down in this post. The point is, we generally tend to start talking about getting ready for the holidays, as the holidays get closer, but the further in advance you are prepared, the better…well, prepared, you are likely to be.

At least start thinking about your plans.