There’s been an awful lot of hype lately about how web-based sales are going to be the saviour of British retail: Over the Christmas shopping period, there was lots of going on about how British websites made £7bn in one second at 1.24pm on the 17th - or something.

Anyway, this week’s news was less encouraging: it turns out these fabulous sales were only reported by big brands. Smaller web-based businesses missed out.

This seems to be part of a trend: small business websites are not doing as well as they could be. And guess what, statistics fans? You’re in for a treat.

After several frightening minutes of delving into the inner recesses of my inbox, where the walls are coated with the sticky ooze of badly spelled press releases and the floor is littered with the skeletons of products that never quite made it, I came up with the following. Brace yourselves:

  • 61% of consumers would opt to buy from a big brand online rather than an independent online business
  • 45% would avoid ordering from a company with a badly designed website
  • 56% are more likely to stay on a professional-looking website than a badly designed one
  • 83% are ‘negatively affected’ when there are no contact details listed on a business’ website
  • 23% of business’ websites haven’t been updated since their launch
  • 92% of businesses don’t have e-commerce on their websites

Web hosting company Amenworld has decided that this – particularly the first statistic – isn’t good enough, and it’s decided to launch a ‘Support Independent Online Shops’ campaign, designed to promote small shops and give them advice on how to optimise their online presence.

Andrew Fassinge, the company’s marketing manager, told me they had seen the ‘trials and tribulations’ small businesses face when they’re trying to get online. “We felt we could offer a helping hand,” he says.

I spoke to Holly Tucker from notonthehighstreet.com, which is an online marketplace where people can buy from multiple independent shops in one transaction. She says one of the most important things for an online shop is to appear professional.

“They need to take pride in their branding,” she says. “A consumer’s first instinct when they enter a site is paramount, so design is essential.”

She also points out that photography is important. “It’s the thing that can make or break you,” she says.

“If you have something that looks like it’s been photographed on your bed, it’s going to let down the trust of the site. If it looks like it could be featured in a magazine, that’s when people will trust the site. People are used to looking at magazine-quality pictures when they consume magazines. The moment someone has to decipher what you’re photographing, that’s when people will lose trust.”

It’s a difficult one to get right, but if you manage it, you’ll reap the benefits: Notonthehighstreet experienced a 600% growth last year, and has had 300% month-on-month growth since January.

“The thing is, big business wants to be small business,” she says. “You can see this when big department stores try to mimic small business with tags on their products that say ‘hand made’.

“Unfortunately, this means something like ‘hand made in China by someone who is making a million others at the same time’. That’s the advantage of being a small business,” she says.