Are your customers really online?
A recent survey of engineers quantifies Internet usage and why some Web sites fail
By Sara Procknow -- Industrial Distribution, 4/1/1999
RECENTLY, EDN MAGAZINE, a sister publication of Industrial Distribution, conducted a survey about "Worldwide Use of the Internet," asking participants their opinions about distributor Web sites, e-commerce and the Internet in general. It yielded some very interesting results.Granted, the electronics industry may or may not apply directly to your business, but I think we can draw some similar parallels from the statistics and trends generated from the report. Further, since EDN surveyed engineers -- in many cases the customers of industrial distributors -- you might be interested in what they had to say.
The most interesting piece of information from this survey pertains to actual Internet usage. I hear from distributors time and again that their customers "just aren't using the Internet." Well, this survey blows that theory out of the water. Roughly 70 percent of the engineers polled use distributor Web sites. These engineers are searching the Web for more than just pricing and technical information. They are also looking for technical services, company information, contact names, telephone numbers, and the ability to conduct transactions.
Engineers access many distributor Web sites during the course of an average week. Some of the top vote getters from the U.S. include the sites of Avnet, Digi-Key, Marshall Industries, Newark and Arrow. From Europe, the top five include Avnet, RS Components, Premier Farnell, EBV and Marshall.
How much time do these engineers spend on the Internet? According to the survey, they spend more time on the Internet at work than at home. Specifically, on average during the week, they indicate they spend five hours of business and four hours of personal time on the Web.
Another topic of interest uncovered in this survey is the use of Internet search engines, and which ones are used most often. Top vote getters in the search engine category include Yahoo and Alta Vista, which led the pack by far. InfoSeek, Excite and Lycos trailed, but still had enough votes to make the list.
This is important because in order for customers to find a distributor's site on the Internet, they will often use a search engine. And, because different protocols exist for these search engines, distributors need to become proficient in these search engine processes. A good bet is to visit each of the search engine sites to find out more information as many publish their guidelines for submitting sites.
And, finally, EDN wanted to find out since most engineers visit the same Web sites, how does your site become a preferred site? The answer to this question actually lies in the opposite -- why do customers not return to a Web site? Engineers cited the following as reasons why they often don't return: the information is not valuable, it is too difficult to navigate, information is not updated, too many graphics, and the site is just not interesting.
All this survey data points to the fact that customers, yes, your customers, are using the Internet and they are buying from distributors online. If this is the case, shouldn't your marketing efforts be to target this captive audience with a valuable, easy-to-navigate Web product?
Send your comments to Sara Procknow at sprocknow@cahners.com or call (617) 558-4289.
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