Surfin' the Internet for The Green Industry: its use by the industry

by Hans C. Groot, Ph.D.

While Etera - home to websites of some 1.700 independent garden stores - closed its doors in July, the internet is not about to fold up and go away. Given the current state of the economy, the growth of e-commerce may slow down a bit, maybe even experience some contraction, but the enormous potential of the internet insures its survival and future growth.

To get an idea of how extensively the internet is used by the Green Industry, I decided to do an analysis of the Western Nursery & Garden Expo exhibitors, as listed in the September issue of PCN. This alphabetical listing allowed exhibitors to list both e-mail and website addresses, as well as phone/fax numbers.

Use of the internet is important as it facilitates communication and can support a company's marketing program that makes it easy for potential customers to get in touch with you (e-mail) or look at the goods/services you have to offer (website information). Given that communication is so vital, it was rather surprising to find even one listing with either phone or fax numbers, just a Post Office address, one firm that listed only a fax number, and two with just phone numbers; all others listed both phone and fax numbers.

Of the 318 exhibitors listed, 49 (15%) indicated an e-mail address, 32 (10%) showed a website address, 144 (45%) listed both an e-mail and website addresses, and 97 (30%) showed neither e-mail nor website address. Undoubtedly, the figure for companies with both e-mail and website addresses is higher as I've yet to see a website that not include some kind of hotlink to "contact us." In other words, in all likelihood 176 or 55% of the firms had both websites and e-mail addresses.

Also, in some cases, where only an e-mail address is listed, you can tell from that address that the company also has a website - for example, sales@asian-ceramics.com or sales@firststepgreenhouses.com. Counting these, the total number of exhibitors with both e-mail and websites comes to about 60%.

As a related issue, I took a look at some of the full-page ads in the same PCN issue. There were 22 full-page advertisements - 14 of them included the website address but 8 did not … and I know some of this latter group do have website addresses. The point I'm trying to make is that if you have an e-mail or website, be sure to let people know about it - show it on your business cards, your letterhead, your advertisements; in short, shout it out!

The fact that some 30% of the firms did not show any kind of internet link is rather surprising given the relative low cost of this form of communication. You can still get free e-mail addresses. Free, though is a bit deceptive, as you also need the means to retrieve e-mail. In other words, you need to sign up with an internet service provider (ISP) such as AOL, earthlink, or compuserve. This ISP service can cost around $250 a year but for that price many ISPs also will host your website for free.

This kind of website does not come with a domain name; instead you get an internet addresses like: http://www.users.aol.com/myownbusiness. If you are a small firm, that's a good way to get started with the internet. You can always change later on to a site with your own domain name: http://www.myowncompany.com. If you want your own domain name for your website, that'll cost you up to $35 per year for the registration fee, plus monthly hosting costs of around $25 per month.

If you're a small firm, you can use of one of off-the-shelf website design programs available at most computer stores. After loading the program on to your computer, it's fairly easy to design a simple, straightforward website. Once you arrange for the hosting of the website, these packaged programs also help you 'publish' your pages to your website.