Small business out of touch with consumers, Telstra research shows

It took a while for Jen Geale to realise she was focusing on the wrong things in the bike store she owned.

"The bike shop had a website and we'd put various levels of effort into its ecommerce functionality over the years – but often we just got so distracted and felt the pressure of customers literally standing in front of us, so the website would take a back seat," she says.

Geale changed tack and launched an online store, Mountain Bikes Direct, in 2012, which now turns over more than $2 million a year.

"Once we really started cranking up Mountain Bikes Direct and its website-only model, we realised we had missed an opportunity with the other store to put more effort into online," she says.

Mind the gap

There's a wide gap between what customers say they want and what businesses think they want, according to a study by Telstra published on Friday to mark the relaunch of the Telstra Business Awards.

The Telstra Small Business Intelligence Report is based on two parallel surveys conducted in November of over 1000 small businesses and over 1000 consumers.

The report found small businesses underestimate the importance of being online.

Of those surveyed 62 per cent of customers will stop considering a business if it is not listed online, while only 50 per cent of small businesses surveyed have a website. Read more