Small firms are being advised to adopt ‘professional sounding' e-mail addresses if they want to benefit from hidden profitability, in a new report.
The survey, by web hosting firm Easily.co.uk, asked over 1,500 consumers, if they preferred fictional email address sales@londonplumbing .com or londonplumbing@hotmail.com.
The results show that a massive 88 per cent favoured the first option, as they felt that it suggested a more professional and trustworthy organisation.
Younger consumers were more likely to have this attitude, with 95 per cent of 16-24 year olds more likely to trust a domain specific address.
Jonathan Robinson, director of business development at Easily, said: “Email is an extension of a company’s online presence, so it is unsurprising to find that consumers expect a professional business website to be complemented by domain name specific email addresses.
On a regional level, consumers in London and the North East were more inclined to trust purchase from the @londonplumbing.com address.
Robinson said: “By registering their own domain name for as little as £4.99 and using the domain name for their email address, they not only present a more professional image, they also have the freedom to change providers without changing their email address.”
