RALEIGH, N.C. -- Several local news outlets have been reporting that Raleigh based small businesses have lost a considerable amount of money over the particularly severe North Carolina winter of 2014. As ice and snow have essentially closed down roadways several times this year, companies have either had to deal with less customers or avoid opening all together.

“A survey of 659 small business owners by Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling found that 47 percent have seen examples of extreme weather financially impacting their business. And 90 percent said they saw significant financial impact in the aftermath of severe weather.

Nearly four in 10 reported damages between $5,000 and $25,000.” (Source)

Perhaps even more shocking is the statistic that 21% of the companies surveyed said that they had to lay off employees due to the loss of sales.

So what could these companies have done to stem the tide of revenue loss? As an internet marketing firm the answer seems so obvious to us: E-Commerce. Just because your physical store has had to close doesn’t mean that your online store has to close as well. The problem is the simple fact that most small businesses located around the Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill area simply don’t have an e-commerce site, so they simply cannot gain revenue while their physical store is closed.

It is simply amazing that in 2014 so many businesses simply don’t have an online store. With a whopping 97% of customers using the web to shop locally not having an e-commerce platform is simply leaving money on the table, and I suspect that some of these local losses, both in revenue and jobs, could have been avoided if more companies heeded this advice.

For more information please visit http://semraleigh.com