To help small businesses effectively market themselves and sell online, Microsoft Office Live Small Business (http://www.smallbusiness.officelive.com) today launched new features and enhancements to its Web service. New features include Store Manager, an e-commerce tool to help small businesses easily sell products on their own Web site and on eBay; and E-mail Marketing beta, to make sending e-mail newsletters and promotions simple and affordable. Small businesses that sign up will receive a valuable set of tools and features for free, including Web hosting; rich site design capabilities; numerous productivity applications; contact management software for performing basic customer relationship management (CRM); and custom domain name registration with 100 business e-mail accounts (custom domains are free for the first year). This release is also compatible with the Firefox 2.0 Web browser, making the service accessible on both Macs and PCs.
Despite consumers' growing tendency to search for products and services online, about half of the small businesses in the United States with fewer than 10 employees do not have a Web site.(1) With eight out of 10 Americans today spending as much time online as they do watching TV,(2) small businesses could be at a disadvantage.
