Here are 9 great reasons why a business needs a website:

1. The number one reason consumers go online is to get more information for future purchases
   
   
2. Increase visibility - Reaching global market
   Think of your website as a continuous method of promoting your company on a national and international basis every day of the week. All of this chance at promotion and at a fraction of the typical traditional costs for such coverage through traditional advertising means.
   
   
3. Functional expansion - 24/7 service
   Your organization can effectively multiply its customer interfacing capabilities very quickly and again, very cost effectively. This means that you can provide more timely information on your products, pricing, updates, company literature, manuals, and answers to commonly asked questions. The beauty of this is the speed and ease in how these things can be offered on a 24 hour-a-day basis.
   
   
4. Collection of customer data - Know your customers
   Many statistics can be gathered from the customer traffic to your website. Information such as when information is accessed from the website can be useful. Additionally, where they go within your website and where they come from to your site, can also be gathered. It is also easy enough to gather relevant information, facts, or opinions from your website visitors by asking them to fill out forms or a questionnaire.
   
   
5. Reduce cost of doing business - Less expensive
   Think in terms of how you can still provide information that customers or potential customers seek but make it available via the website. What winds up happening is that your thinking begins to supplant traditional rules of "how things should be" with what makes sense in the new millennium. Things that naturally fall into this category are things such as printing and marketing expenditures, customer service information, manuals, or product catalogs. All of these types of hard expenses with a good strategy, can be substantially reduced or eliminated by proper use of your website.
   
   
6. Use as a sales tool - Be Supportive
   Your company’s website can become a tremendous sales support piece to your marketing or promotions. This especially becomes true when you utilize the website as a complete literature piece or an expanded web-brochure explaining the full story of a product or service. The website can be a tremendous competitive differential advantage to sales and support personnel as it provides for the customer or potential customer to be directed to full collateral material and most current product and company information.
   
   
7. Matching customer expectation - Be detailed
   Not having a website these days or worse a site not reflecting the quality of your business can create a detrimental perception among your market and customers. `There is not an especially good answer when a customer asks why they cannot locate your website on the Internet.
   
   
8. Natural company growth - Strategy for the era
   A company that really wants to grow beyond the natural limitations imposed by the non-web business environment has to consider e-business possibilities. A prerequisite for companies that want to grow into e-business is that they have a solid business foundation supported by strong strategy. At the heart of that strategy, is a professional website that has common elements of proven success. The website should have a blended strategy that complements the existing company's policies, practices and strategy in order to create strong synergy.
   
   
9. Allow customers to self-help themselves - Improved customer relationship
   It has been proven that customers do not mind helping themselves electronically in order to get information or buy products that they desire. In fact, customers have come to expect some elements of website self-help to be available to them. No question that the old paradigm of doing business has shifted in large part thanks to the ease of the interface with the company website.  Allow customers to help themselves and help you at the same time.