Its now the year 2006. The internet as we know it has been around for about 15 years. Its not new any more, but maturing, changing. Its no longer a question of whether people use the internet, but rather how they use it. For businesses the question is: how do my employees, my suppliers, my existing and potential customers, and my community use the internet, and how can I use the internet to make life easier and more rewarding for them and as a result grow my business? Answering this question properly will bring good fortune.

This question itself is not even new. Replace the word internet with telephone, or automobile, or mail or television, check, credit cards, money, or even time, and you get a question whose answers have set the path for many a companys fortunes over the years. Answer the question correctly, pursue the answer and the consumer will bring you very good fortune indeed.

What does todays internet user look like? For a glimpse at some trends, consider a recent opinion survey conducted by eMarketer of US Internet Retailers listing the following to be the top reasons for the continued explosive growth of online shopping:

1. The continued growth in demand for time-saving convenient services by all consumers (38.2%)
2. The greater acceptance of and familiarity with the internet by todays adult (33.6%)
3. The maturation and growing buying power of todays web-savvy teens and young adults. (25.2%)
4. A growing dissatisfaction with shopping in stores (3.1%)

According to these results, we are as a whole all looking to save time, increasingly familiar with and comfortable with the internet, and the generation coming up even more so. That could help explain why online sales rose over 25% in 2005 or roughly nearly 4 times the growth in offline sales over the previous year.

How do we here in Catawba County use the internet to make life easier and rewarding for our customers, employees, and suppliers wherever they may be and therefore bring more success to our own businesses and community?

1. Realize the internet is the most instant and far-reaching medium in existence. China has over 100 million internet users already and is projected to surpass the US in usage within the next 5 years. Not impressed? How about in our own neighborhood? More people in our country today use the internet to search for products and services, and even phone numbers than the telephone books themselves. Able to be much more up-to-date than traditional print media, it has gained the confidence and accessibility to provide greater time savings and convenience.

2. Know how to present your products and services attractively and efficiently on the internet. First impressions last, and those first impressions happen quickly indeed. A recent Canadian study revealed that the brain can and does make flash judgments almost as quickly as the eye can take it in which turns out to be around 1/20th of a second to form an impression of a website. The study went on to discuss how these first impressions created either a positive or negative feeling that carried over into implied confidence or avoidance of the message that they then may take the time to comprehend. Good first impressions created trust, and a tendency to use that site to confirm their decision whereas the opposite was also true. Of course the site must then follow through with utility and avoid frustrating the user at any point, or they can leave quicker then they entered.

3. Just the creation and presentation of a website will not guarantee success. Advertisers in the US and Canada spent $5.75 billion on Search Engine Marketing in 2005 which was up 44 percent over 2004. The efficiency of being able to focus on a specific niche, measure real-time results and make instant adjustments in your marketing strategies is paying huge dividends to savvy advertisers in all industries.

We can continue to increase our share of the global marketplace in our county by more effectively using one of the most incredible developments in communications and interaction the world has ever seen. It is no longer prudent to wait until the internet comes into its own. The day has already arrived, and the world is increasingly buying from those who are there making their lives easier.