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Ecommerce software supplier, Actinic today reveals the results of its annual survey of web designers. It found them building significantly more sites than in previous years, but a decrease in the revenue per site all but cancelled out any potential increase in earnings. This suggests a more competitive market, more efficiency on the part of web designers, or a combination of the two. A full copy of the survey is available free at Actinic's site.
Web designers reportedly built an average of thirty sites each in 2007, compared with averages in the low twenties for the previous 3-4 years. The proportion of sites enabled for e-commerce remained at 27%, similar to previous years. But the average revenue per site fell from £4,600 to £3,300. Overall, the average total value of all e-commerce sites built remained the same, at around £26,000 per design company for the year.
The survey gave no indication that clients’ requirements are falling – suggesting that web designers are having to work harder for the same level of reward. But commercial e-commerce packages – which should enable web designers to develop ecommerce sites more quickly and efficiently – are only used for about a third of builds.
This, according to Actinic’s Chris Barling, means that web designers are potentially missing out on efficiency savings just when they need them most: “Today’s packages are easier, more powerful and more flexible than ever before,” he says. “In many cases they can deliver just what the web designer needs in this ever more competitive market.”
The reasons for the slow adoption of packaged design solutions remain unclear. “It may be,” says Barling, “that web designers’ perceptions of e-commerce packages are still based on experiences of first-generation products, or that we still haven’t reached the point where packages are truly mature. Or web designers may just feel they are too busy to learn a new application.”
Other key findings of the survey include:
• Greater use of web designers by small and medium businesses: 90% of clients are now companies with fewer than 50 employees, compared with 80% in 2006, and 75% in 2003;
• A continuing decline in Dreamweaver’s market dominance: Only 50% of designers name it as a favourite tool;
• PHP winning out over Microsoft ASP / .Net: PHP users rose to 63% while ASP/.Net usage declined to 25%;
• A growing preference for Linux and UNIX servers over Windows: Almost two-thirds said they preferred these platforms for building online stores.
The survey was carried out by pfa Research on a random sample of 75 web designers selected from an independent database.
About Actinic
Founded in 1996, Actinic (actinic.co.uk) specialises in helping small and medium retailers trade, both online and offline, using its e-commerce and electronic point of sale (EPOS) packages.
Actinic offers two ranges of ecommerce products for web designers and self-builders. These comprise web-based and desktop store-building solutions. Its solutions include Actinic Designer, Actinic Business, Actinic Catalog, Actinic Audio Store and Actinic Express, and power more UK ecommerce sites than any other company. Research shows that over 50% of SMEs using packaged software to run their e-stores use Actinic. Some of Actinic's better known UK users include the Royal Opera House, British Library, Land of Leather, Lloyds of London, Lexmark and the Royal Navy.
The Actinic EPoS hardware and software are designed by former retailers and give a comprehensive feature set that is straight forward to operate at great value prices.
The range covers everything from a low cost, single till installation for the smaller store, to integrated multi-till and multi-site systems with head office functionality, for centralised product, stock and price updating and reporting.
Trademarks: Actinic, Actinic Catalog, Actinic Business and Actinic Designer are registered trademarks of Actinic Software Limited.
For further comment contact:
Actinic PR: Jane Lee, Dexterity
T: +44 (0)1273 470199 / E: jane.lee[.]dexterity.co.uk.
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btownsend[.]actinic.co.uk 
