As we visit with community leaders and business owners and operators, the discussion soon turns to concern about the net effect of e-commerce on small communities and local businesses. Here is one more method for people to shop elsewhere. In addition to the attractions of larger communities, super stores and malls, businesses now must deal with potential customers by-passing local stores and shopping from home via the Internet instead. Like the super stores, malls, and competition from larger communities, the Internet is not going to go away. Its use will only grow as more people become comfortable using it, begin to trust it with their credit cards, and actually receive their on-line purchases.
Communities can view the Internet as a threat or an opportunity.
However, communities that view the Internet as an opportunity can use many approaches to take advantage of it. If your community doesn't have its own World Wide Web site, get a committee together to plan and get a web site created. They're missing out on promoting themselves worldwide via the Internet. When surfers are searching for a particular product or service, they may as well find it in a small rural business as one in a larger metropolitan community. An advantage of shopping via the Internet is that it's a way of shopping at home and not making the trip to the larger communities and malls.