More and more people are shopping online for their holiday gifts. This is evident by the fact that in-store sales continue to slow while online store sales continue serious double digit growth year after year.

Predictions for this coming holiday season, which starts the day after Thanksgiving and goes through Christmas Eve, is expected to have a 21% growth over last year's sales according to a recent study of shoppers.

Online dollar sales in the 2007 holiday season are expected to exceed 2006 numbers by $6 billion. This should bring holiday sales figures for 2007 to around $33 billion.

During this same time, the National Retail Federation is predicting only a 4% growth in store sales vs. 2006 numbers for the same timeframe. So, what are the big retailers going to do? They are going online!

The major department stores now all have online outlets, some with in-store pickup of the items you purchased online. Wal-Mart, for instance will ship any purchase made online to a Wal-Mart store near you for free. All you have to do is go into the store and pickup your online purchases. What is their hope is that you will do additional shopping while in the store.

It could mean that if they do not adapt to the changing marketplace they could go out of business very soon.

All these facts makes me ask the question, if the big retailers are struggling with same-store sales vs. 2006 then what is happening to the small business who is competing with the big stores?

It stands to reason that the small to medium size business is also struggling with sales vs. previous years. If the big retailers are loosing business to the online marketplace, so must the small businessman.

Also, if the major retailers are going online to find their sales increases what is the small business owner doing to compete in the online marketplace?

The small businessman doesn't have millions to pour into a new division of the company to create a dominant online presence. Heck, they probably don't have a thousand that they can sink into the project. What are they to do? They may recognize the need, they just don't have the capital or the resources to throw at the project.

A dedicated website may be the best choice. Let me explain.

A website with your business name gives you so many advantages. You can have your own site to broadcast your wares. You can have the site designed as an information site, but better yet would be to have the site actually be an e-Commerce site that takes orders for your products.

For small businesses there are choices of shopping carts, many of them with zero cost of ownership. That is, the cart doesn't cost a thing. You heard right. If you were thinking that the software to run the site would stop you from proceeding you need to check out:

Both of these carts are feature rich, allow for growth and can handle almost any small business website. Best of all, they do not charge for the software and they are free to use. They also have several free templates to use that allow you to change the color, look and feel of the cart to suit your tastes and your business.

Additionally, you could have a series of E-mail addresses with your business name (if the site has your business name as its URL). This is advantageous with marketing your business locally. If direct mail works for your type of business, mass E-mail to a list of your customers works even better. Create your own E-mail mail list from your customer base and then E-mail them on a regular basis about sales or send them coupons or discounts that only E-mail clients receive.

Having your own website is great if you have time to manage it, work it and use it. The site can be a wonderful marketing tool and could help generate sales. But it is going to take time to create, time to manage and time to work it. If you don't have the time, then possibly this is not the best solution for you.

For small businesses to compete with the big retailers a website is absolutely essential. For this is one area where you can truly compete with the big retailers and out shine them. With a website there are no restrictions with regard to size, number of items or how you look compared to any other web site. The small business owner is free to express themselves and absolutely outclass the competition.

Finally, if you want to appear larger than you truly are, a website is the way to go. If presented professionally, a visitor may never know that you are a small family operation with no real employees.

Also, if you want to expand your business reach beyond your neighborhood, a website is the way to do it. With a website you are able to market your products globally. Don't limit your growth by limiting your territory. Expand your mind and then you can expand your business.