Businesses slowly increasing web, social media presence: ABS

Businesses that use IT in their operations continued to grow during 2013-14; however, there is still a large proportion of businesses that do not use technology when it comes to interacting with customers, according to the latest results recorded by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The ABS identified that businesses with internet access reached 94.7 percent in 2013-14, up from 91.9 percent in 2011-12. Of those with internet connectivity, 99.2 percent use broadband as the main type of connection. This has dropped slightly from 2012-13, when it was 99.6 percent.

Meanwhile, businesses with a web presence continued to sit below 50 percent, despite an increase of 47.2 percent from 2012-13 to 47.1 percent for 2013-14.

The ABS highlighted that the greatest change was in the proportion of businesses with a social media presence. This increased 26.1 percent to 31 percent between 2012-13 and 2013-14.

The results showed that the smaller the size of the business, the smaller proportion had web presence and social media presence.

At the same time, the proportion of businesses that received orders via the internet also increased from 30 percent to 33 percent between 2012-13 and 2013-14, with the value of income derived from the sale of goods or services via the internet increasing by 8 percent, from AU$246 billion in 2012-13 to AU$267 billion in 2013-14.