There are more than 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses in Ireland, but a massive 92 per cent of these can’t process sales online. Furthermore, 37 per cent don’t have a website.

Against this backdrop, more than 1,000 people are expected to attend DigiCon in Cork this week.

With speakers from Facebook, PayPal, Google and YouTube, among others, the conference aims to provide small and medium business owners and employees with information about the digital economy and online space.

DigiCon event director Michelle McDonagh said the internet has completely changed the way business is done and the constantly evolving technology means that many small to medium businesses are struggling to keep up.

“Of the estimated €6 billion spent online annually by Irish consumers, 60 to 70 per cent goes overseas. We want to bring some of that spend back into the SME sector and open small business in Ireland up to a global market,” she said.

“The bottom line for Irish SMEs is that you can’t afford not to have a meaningful online presence if your business is to survive in today’s economy,” she added.

Dr Stephen Brennan, director of the National Digital Strategy, who is one of the keynote speakers at the DigiCon event, said Ireland is in the midst of an online revolution but needs to get more businesses trading online.

“It seems that many small Irish businesses do not fully appreciate the relevance of the internet to them, its potential to help them become more efficient, or to access new markets. For others, it is a problem of not knowing how to go about it, what they need to do or where they can get help,” he said.

Research undertaken for the European Commission indicates that traditional businesses with a meaningful online presence grow twice as fast, export twice as much and employ twice as many people.