Editorial: Let’s channel students’ web skills to bolster local business

When looking for something to buy, what do you do? Do you walk around every street and weigh your options, or do you take out your laptop or phone, visit Google and search for businesses around you? 

In 2015, businesses must weigh the importance of reaching potential customers online. Locally, some businesses have taken to the web to increase their popularity. 

When asked about its website, Stan Prestogeorge, the owner of Prestogeorge, a Strip District-based coffee and tea shop, said, “We are a wholesale distributor and retailer. Most of our business is brick and mortar. We would like to grow online more.”

Despite being on Yelp and Urbanspoon, Red Oak Cafe does not currently have its own website. Its owner, Dave Gancy, said, “We used to have a website, but it was hacked.” The Oakland cafe went online in 2007, but was hacked in 2010. 

When asked about whether Yelp or Urbanspoon was better than having its own site, the owner replied, “It’s not really an either or. We should have our own, but I can’t do what they do as far as reach. It’s a different animal.”

Whatever the case, there is no question that online shopping plays a major role in modern commerce. According to the SCORE Association, a Herndon, Va.-based nonprofit organization of small business counselors and mentors supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration, only 51 percent of small businesses have websites. In sum, half of smaller enterprises in the United States do not have a website of their own.

An article on Wednesday in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette elaborated on numerous statistics about small businesses’ online presences reported by the SCORE Association. According to the article, 97 percent of customers search online for products and services, 91 percent of customers have visited a store because of its online presence and 88 percent of customers have been influenced by an online review. While a larger enterprise possesses the resources to build a prominent online presence, many smaller companies find it difficult, since all of their energy must go into the actual day-to-day business they are trying to keep afloat.

So what can citizens do to help their local business owners and, therefore, local economy? For starters, the neighborhoods of Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and surrounding universities and colleges can play a major role.

Computer science departments should implement a program that matches educated programmers and web designers with local businesses that remain offline. Students would design a functioning website, especially one that is mobile-compatible, since 93.3 percent of small business websites are not, despite 4 out of 5 customers saying they have used a smartphone to shop. During this process, business owners could remain focused on their daily tasks without distraction. If students successfully complete the project, they would then be awarded class credit. 

It’s a win-win: The business increases its consumer reach by going online, while students get both college credit and real world experience. 

We live in an era of the decline of mom and pop shops, and much of this comes at the cost of the undeniably convenient World Wide Web. Twenty percent of businesses employing five or fewer people will fail per year, according to the Cato Institute.

The Internet is not going away. And, to ensure that economic competition does not, either, small businesses must adapt to the extraordinary prominence of online shopping. Joint efforts between community members and community businesses are vehicles to keep small businesses alive. 

Linking small, local enterprises with student computer scientists provides a window to our generation’s digital skills derived from a lifelong relationship with technology. Why not put our skills to use?