Do I Really Need a Website for my Retail Store? Best Affordable Website

A lot of people ask me "Do I *really* need a website for my business? Does it *really* make a difference?"
So I figured today we'd discuss small business websites; myths, truth, cost and more.

To begin, the answer is YES! Without a doubt you NEED a website! And NO, Myspace doesn't count.
You MUST have a website for many reasons;

1. It allows customers to find you

2. It allows customers to browse products. (Even if you don't want to sell products online, you can still post a few photos of what you have to offer to entice visitors)

3. A website answers questions for customers; "where are you located?", "what are your hours?", "do you sell _____" - this is a time saver; time is money. By directing customers with questions to your site they are able to get all the info they need while you spend your time working to make more money.

4. You have the option of doing online sales. I only sell in bulk online but at my retail store customer can buy individual items. Each bulk order I get is at least $200 profit and can be as much as $3,000 profit. My online sales generates at least double financially then my physical store does. So YES, and online "store" IS worth it.

5. Customers like "up-to-date" businesses. Let's face it, every business these days has a website. Customer like technology. If your business is "up-to-date" you appear "modernized" to the customer. You don't have to have a super fancy, flash website with all the bells and whistles, but you need A Website.

COST
If you don't want to pay for a website, use a free host. I use Blogger.com (Check out my free sites: Victoria's Secret Wholesale and PaidOpps). There's no charge and its pretty easy to create a site and update it daily, even if you don't know html.

As mentioned, Myspace ISN'T a "website". The problem with using myspace as your primary "site" is twofold;
1. Not everyone likes myspace. A lot of adults see Myspace in a negative light. A lot of teens aren’t allowed to use Myspace, so you could be eliminating a large amount of customers. But the problems with Myspace are way more than just eliminating customers;

2. Websites get "Search Results". This means that when someone looks up a product, say "Scented Candles", a list of sites appear as the results. Nowhere in the results do you see "Myspace.com/ScentedCandles" and if you do - it's likely on page #70 of search results - which is no good because nobody ever goes to page #50.
A regular website will get higher results; thus giving the person selling Scented Candles more online traffic which equals more customers. So if you *want* a myspace page, use it as an ADDITION to your regular website; same with Twitter, Facebook, etc.

The downside of using a free site like blogger is that your web address is always going to be "_______.blogspot.com". I, personally, haven't had an issue with it, but some people dislike the ".blogspot.com" in their web address, they feel its tacky or hard for customers to remember.
If you'd rather go with a regular ".com" address you will have to buy the ".com" name and pay for the site.
I suggest using a company like WestHost who offers very affordable packages for as low as $4 - $10 a month and also offers features like shopping carts, free business email (YourName@YourCompany.com)