According American City Business Journals study on CEOs and presidents of US SMBs with fewer than 500 employees, revealed that the online activities of businesses had influenced the sales.
The respondents were asked to tell their opinion on online activities, like reading up on the news, planning business travel, blogging and checking up on competitors information. Among them travel planning (56%) and researching and buying business products (55%) and services (54%) were the most common. The respondents were further grouped in to 5 segments based on activities partcipated and also its influence on sales.
“Interactors,” are the most active participants in almost all the activities, they accounted for only 15% of businesses and 24% of sales. Among them, 79% used to check business news, 75% used it for local and business news, 51% used to check competitors.
“Transactors,” were the group mostly involved in online selling, had high sales also. “Investors” were found to use internet for checking their online accounts. “viewers” and “commentators,” were found to be least active in all aspects. They were found to be underperformers.