As part of the ritual of examining local commerce and SMB Saas strategies, Localogy goes right to the source: SMBs themselves. How do they feel about marketing and operational software? What features do they want? And how has their hunger changed in a pandemic?
Localogy’s latest Mobile Commerce Monitor report dives into websites. Entitled Key Trends in Website Services, it examines original SMB sentiments and behavior for online marketing services – particularly those tied to thier websites. This report was done in collaboration with Duda.
This week we dive into how many services SMBs purchase from website providers. And what does that services mix look like? This all gets to the broader question of what synergies and adjacent products make sense in a website services bundle? And how should providers position accordingly?
First, the average number of services SMBs purchase is up 10 percent from last year to 3.3. As for what they’re purchasing, hosting/domain services leads the way at 63 percent. That’s followed by eCommerce (52 percent), website design (46 percent), security (46 percent), and marketing (40 percent).
Localogy members can access full charts and SMB survey reports. Non-members can purchase reports.
What Does it All Mean?
Going a bit deeper, a few things jump out at us:
– Hosting and domain services logically lead the way. These are core/critical funcitons at the center of a given website bundle, though that continues to broaden and diversify.
– eCommerce is a close second, also not suprisingly. Not only is eCommerce a logical tie-in to websites, but it has experienced well-known inflecitons in the Covid era.
– SMBs appear to lean towards the one-stop-shop appeal of eCommerce services through their website provider. Following (or leading) this trend, we continue to see website providers buy or build eCommerce functionality.
– For example, this report’s underwriter, Duda, acquired eCommerce startup Snipcart in Q3 for this very reason.
– Beyond one-stop-shop appeal, there’s benefit in tighter integration and support when using a given website provider’s endorsed or owned eCommerce product.
– Website design and security, tied at 46 percent each, are likewise logical tie-ins to website services. Design in foundational and security is in greater demand due to the exposure and fear around ransomware attacks in 2021.
– Lastly, marketing services trail the above services, but still see strong adoption at 40 percent. We’ll circle back next week to drill down into the types of marketing services that SMBs are buying.
Time to Shine
Stepping back, SMB online marketing – website-based or otherwise – continues to grow rapidly. SMB SaaS startups and online services providers are correspondingly thriving as it continues to grow as a leading subsector of the broader SaaS universe.
Meanwhile, new SMB SaaS users could represent permanent adopters – a concept that’s accelerated in the Covid era as SMBs are forced to boost their digital transformation. This sends them into the arms of SaaS providers to accomplish a range of marketing functions.
We’ll return in the next installment to go deeper on SMB social marketing behavior. That will include their goals and success factors. Let us know what additional insights jump out at you from the above data, and stay tuned for more breakdowns in our Benchmark Bytes series.
