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eBusiness Survey Results for North West Region
Summary Results for the North West Region of the IIA eBusiness
Survey
Summary Results for the North West Chapter of the IIA eBusiness Survey
The IIA recently conducted a survey at a recent Ebusiness Seminar in Sligo. The questions covered included internet access, online purchasing, internet banking, SPAM, online selling and online marketing.
Respondents were from a variety of backgrounds –legal, tourism, IT, design, semi-state, arts, education, community and voluntary.
Most of the respondents, 54%, had a Broadband connection but only 7% had gone wireless. A further 32% had an ISDN line with only 7% having dial up connections. The broadband figure looks set to rise however with 64% considering it to be ‘very important’ and 18% reporting it to be ‘important’. When asked if they had access to the internet at home 82% indicated they did.
Online Purchasing habits showed that every respondent had purchased products or services online in the previous 12 months. Not surprisingly travel (86%) and books & CDs (61%) ranked the highest. Software ranked the next highest with 43% having purchased online and 12% indicating they conducted their grocery shopping online. The breakdown of how much is spent online each month is as follows, 25% less than €100, 7% between €100 and €200 and 11% more than €200. Internet Banking was used by 89%.
SPAM and viruses were significant problems for respondents with 93% indicating they had received SPAM and 71% reporting regular virus attacks. Three quarters said that half of their daily emails contain SPAM the average being 32% of all mails. With such a high figure receiving unsolicited mails the use of SPAM filtering software seems relatively low with only 79% usage. However when it comes to viruses 100% were using virus software.
When it comes to selling on line many businesses have been slow to exploit the opportunities the internet can provide. The fact that 13% had undertaken email campaigns or used internet advertising and only 8% of respondents had used search engine optimisation shows that marketing managers have yet to fully integrate the internet in the marketing mix. SMS uptake has been slower again with a mere 4% implementing campaigns. However 17% had undertaken integrated marketing campaigns incorporating all four methods.
For the 11% of respondents who are selling on line 20% reported a 10% year on year increase in sales while 10% are seeing a 60% increase.
The IIA would like to thank all respondents for completing this survey.