From the 200-or-so responses to the recent TTJ reader survey, it’s clear that the internet is becoming an increasingly popular shop-window for the timber trade and its suppliers and customers. The results showed that around a third of businesses in the sector now have a corporate website – and this proportion also holds good from analysis of our industry directory, the Timber Trades Address Book, which lists around 3,000 businesses.
Our number crunching also showed that e-mail is an increasingly significant communications medium for the trade. Of our respondents, 48% said that they receive up to 10 e-mails daily, 36% said they get up to 25, 13% up to 50 and 3% more than 50.
Another key object of the survey was to find out what sort of information com-panies look to the worldwide web for in the day-to-day running of their businesses. A total of 78% of the respondents said that they were looking for technical data online, while 64% wanted the latest news from the web. Just over half of the firms that replied said that they wanted to see the latest timber prices online, while 43% were looking for ‘informed comment on world markets’.
But perhaps the key question for many people is whether the timber industry is ready yet to trade online; to actually part with their cash over the internet. The only conclusion you can really draw from our opinion snapshot is that it’s still early days. But the fact that just under a quarter of companies said that they would be willing at least to consider trading over the web suggested that this is an area to watch for the future.
Related Files
How many e-mails do you receive daily?
What do you want from the web?
