Secrets of internet success for small businesses

1. Order size matters most

Number 1 takeout from our survey is that order size is the best predictor of online success. The small businesses and self-employed people who do best online don't get many more orders than their average counterparts. But their average order value is three to four times higher. The norm for a self-employed professional is about € 1,000. If your orders are typically worth more, investing in your online profile is probably worthwhile.

2. Experience counts

You don't need to be an e-commerce expert to do well online. But experience in business does help, even if it's offline experience. People with experience tend to understand how to describe a product or service persuasively. And that translates into more effective online communication. Our findings show that those with more than five years' experience generate significantly bigger earnings online than less experienced people in the same line of business.

3. Websites: regular attention more important than time input

Devoting a lot of time to your website doesn't necessarily bring success. Giving your site regular attention is likely to pay dividends, though. Successful small traders are very disciplined about refreshing their sites. Little and often works better than big efforts with periods of neglect between.

4. Attention to detail brings rewards

Successful internet entrepreneurs are meticulous. They don't settle for half measures. Those who do well are likely to have invested in professional design and upmarket, secure hosting. And with good reason: things like that influence customers with big orders to place. High-performers also avoid generic mail services, such as Gmail and Hotmail, recognising that a professional e-mail address like name@companyname.nl invites confidence.

5. Promotion: modest investment works best

On the internet there are lots of ways to promote your business for free: social media, improved search engine visibility and so on. Unfortunately, 'free' comes at a price. Small businesses that succeed online are much more likely to use paid promotional tools. However, it seems you don't need to spend big to do well. The average amongst high performers is less than € 1,000 a year. That kind of modest investment yields far more leads than putting long hours into 'free' social media marketing and website text optimisation. Spending a little to boost your search engine ranking can pay big dividends. Many factors you might expect to make a difference apparently have little or no bearing on success. It's a fallacy, for example, to think that in some industries personal relationships are all that matter. In reality, the quality of your online presence always counts and is always worth investing in. By contrast, your age and where you live are unlikely to be barriers to success. Small businesses in the east of the Netherlands perform almost as well online as those in the country's western economic hotspots. Want to know more? Read our website feature on how to succeed online and take the test.