RESTAURANTS VICTORS
- NOT VICTIMS OF WEB REVOLUTION
15th August 2007
The web is having a significant
and positive impact on the fortunes
of restaurants according to a new
study.
The research by thebestof, a national
network of local marketing websites,
run by local people, that champion
the best businesses in their area
shows that small and medium sized
businesses (SMEs) plan to grow
their businesses by on average
38% in the coming year. However
the more web-savvy SMEs including
restaurants have growth ambitions
that are twice those of their conventional
SME counterparts (41% vs 20%).
The study is based
on telephone interviews with 500
small and medium
sized businesses combined with
an online survey completed by
a further 2,583 SMEs. The businesses
were drawn from across the UK
and
from a mix of sectors, and included
67 restaurants.
The research which explores SMEs
general approach to marketing,
reveals that restaurants typically
spend £3,000 marketing their
businesses and 76% of them plan
to spend as much if not more on
marketing in the coming year. However
a significant group are focusing
this spend on the web and this
spend is delivering results. For
instance the internet-enabled restaurants
get 15% of their enquiries from
the web.
In general, the study paints a
picture of an SME community in
a bullish mood. One in five plan
to launch a new product or service
in the next 12 months and a further
13% will expand into a new area.
One in six will merge with or acquire
another business and only 3% plan
to scale back their operations.
Indeed when asked to score their
future optimism, on a scale of
1 to 10 the average score is a
creditable 7.8.
However, when analysing the businesses
which are more web active against
those who are not, the study shows
that the companies most actively
using the web for marketing, expect
their business to grow twice as
quickly as the SMEs who aren’t.
These web-aware SMEs are also far
more likely to be taking business
away from larger rivals too. For
instance 58% of the internet active
restaurants describe their competitors
as bigger than them, whereas the
less internet active are more likely
to say their competitors are the
same size as them or smaller.
Nigel Botterill, Chief Executive
of thebestof comments: “The
first wave of the internet seemed
to be all about the major brands
and retailers, or businesses like
lastminute.com or ebay, whose whole
premise is built on the internet.
What this research shows is that
there’s a whole generation
of ordinary small businesses – like
restaurants - who have been quietly
working in the background, using
the Web to steal market share from
their bigger competitors.”
The Report suggests the web-aware
SMEs as a whole haven’t set
up e-commerce operations, they
are just making sure that they
are doing the basics. For instance:
76% have a site
46% do search engine optimisation
30% run email campaigns
11% run affiliate programmes
9% do pay per click advertising
7% run a blog
While certain SMEs are making
major online gains, the study also
highlights a digital divide. For
instance, 25% of restaurants report
that the internet holds no potential
for their business, furthermore
a third don’t see it as relevant.
Yet in the same sector there are
restaurants generating just under
a fifth of their business from
the Internet.
Nigel Botterill again: “It
is extraordinary to see how the
internet is delivering so much
for some and yet so little for
others. We’re working hard
to try and understand why this
is.”
Part of the problem appears to
be a matter of mindset. One in
five (19%) reports that they don’t
feel equipped to take advantage
of the Internet. A further 56%
simply believe it is the natural
domain of the bigger business.
The age of the proprietor in charge
of the SME is another issue.
Nigel Botterill concludes: “Restaurants
need to break out of this mindset.
69% of them turn to the web for
their suppliers, so why do they
think people looking for restaurants,
aren’t doing the same?
“They need to realise that
there are businesses exactly like
theirs doing some very simple things
to capture business through the
Web. It’s not rocket science,
it’s a basic business skill
and tool, just like financial management,
which they can and must harness.”
· www.thebestof.co.uk is
a national network of local marketing
websites, run by local people,
that champion the best businesses
in their area
