Lack of websites hampers SMEs� exposure
Isaac Pinielo | Thursday March 24, 2016 12:07
The business advocacy organisation hence reignited its appeal to the business community to subscribe to the Chamber Trust seal, which facilitates international trade.
Shiellah Moribame, who is head of public affairs, marketing and communications at the chamber told BusinessWeek that the Chamber Trust seal is meant to authenticate businesses and boost their exposure on the global markets.
She said since its launch last year, the response has been received positively especially by the SMEs who would like to grow their businesses by exposing themselves to the global markets. “We received many enquiries about this initiative even though many have not yet signed up. The challenge has been that most of the businesses that have shown interest do not have websites as this initiative requires a business to have a website,” she said.
She further pointed out that the website is meant to create a link that businesses need to attract the global client.
According to Moribame, Business Botswana has so far registered only two companies in the small enterprise category, adding that they are yet to do a follow up with them to know how they had benefited this far.
The release stated that primarily the seal is designed to assist SMEs that are already active in, or interested in developing new markets globally. Any company or business can subscribe to the seal through Business Botswana.
Furthermore, the release noted that any company in the world with a corporate website, can apply for a Chamber Trust seal with their respective local, regional or national chamber of commerce.
“The Chamber Trust is a standardised worldwide chamber tool designed to deal with online trust, confidence and lack of exposure issues that SMEs face when they enter the global electronic market place,” reads the release in part.
As a trusted search engine exclusively focused on companies, their activities and product lines, it is understood that this is the long awaited solution to the problem that SMEs have been experiencing over the years.
Apart from the extra ‘peace of mind’ for the visitors to a sealed company’s website, the release says the business-to-business-verification seal allows companies around the world to easily find potential new business partners whose existence, profile, products and services have been verified by a Chamber of Commerce.
“Chamber Trust is the first real worldwide business-to-business (B-to-B) trust seal dedicated to international trade,” it says.
Through the validation by a Chamber of Commerce of objective information about a given company and through the publishing of a database of beneficiary companies on the existing World Chambers Network site, these companies are given exposure and impact on the global market.
Business Botswana further indicated that this service is targeting SMEs interested or engaged in international trade or having international customers, such as hotels, mainly in the B-to-B domain, and having a website.
The benefits of the seal are said to be that it provides the impact and recognition created by verification from qualified Chambers of Commerce, allowing a company to stand out.
“This benefit also extends to setting chamber trust apart from social media by virtue of authentication process through the use of chamber of commerce the business registered is affiliated to,” says the release.
It gives global exposure through the World Chambers Network Site and includes a free publishing service in the Global Media Room that allows companies to increase their visibility even more.
In the context of advertising, the service is much cheaper compared to other advertising media. By earning the Chamber Trust logo, the subscription offers the usage of the chamber trust logo in one’s correspondences and website. The trust also promotes the company’s new products and services regularly with a more comprehensive search engine.