The internet is having a positive impact on the success of small retailers, a new study has found.

National network of local marketing websites thebestof found that small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) that are more web-savvy have growth ambitions that are twice those of their conventional counterparts.

Telephone interviews with 500 small and medium-sized businesses and an online survey of a further 2, 583 shows that retailers typically spend £1,000 on marketing their business. A significant number are focusing this spend on the web, with retailers that are internet-enabled getting 24 per cent of their enquiries from the web, and florists, in particular, receiving15 percent.

Nigel Botterill, chief executive of thebestof, said: “The first wave of the internet seemed to be all about the major brands and retailers, or businesses like lastminute.com or eBay, whose whole premise is built on the internet. What this research shows is that there’s a whole generation of ordinary small businesses, like retailers, who have been quietly working in the background, using the web to steal market share from their bigger competitors.”

But while certain SMEs are making major online gains, the study also highlights a digital divide, with a third of retailers reporting that the internet holds no potential business for them.

Botterill believes this is just a matter of mindset. “They need to realise that there are businesses exactly like theirs doing some very simple things to capture business through the web,” he said. “It’s not rocket science, it’s a basic business skill and tool, just like financial management, which they can and must harness.”

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