According to online entrepreneur Charles Duncombe, an examination of Web site figures reveals that just one misspelling is enough to reduce online sales in half. Such figures indicate spelling mistakes put off customers who are concerned about a particular Web site’s credibility.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) shares the same concerns. Its head of education and skills, James Fothergill, reports, “Our recent research shows that 42 percent of employers are not satisfied with the basic reading and writing skills of school and college leavers, and almost half have had to invest in remedial training to get their staff’s skills up to scratch . . This situation is a real concern, and the government must make the improvement of basic literacy and numeracy skills of all school and college leavers a top priority.”

Duncombe—who manages Web sites on cell phones, clothing, and travel—asserts that he has been “shocked at the poor quality of written English” when it comes to staff recruitment. Poor spelling, he says, poses a serious dilemma for the online community, adding, “I know that industry bemoaning the education system is nothing new, but it is becoming more and more of a problem with more companies going online . . . This is because when you sell or communicate on the Internet, 99 percent of the time, it is done by the written word.”

Last month, the Office for National Statistics published figures showing online sales in the UK running at £527million weekly.

Duncombe, who is the director of the Just Say Please group, says he measured the revenue per visitor to the Web site tightsplease.co.uk and discovered that it doubled after an error was corrected. “If you project this across the whole of Internet retail, then millions of pounds worth of business is probably being lost each week due to simple spelling mistakes.” He stresses that proper spelling is important to a Web site’s credibility.

So if you too are concerned about your credibility and want your money put to good use, let us have a look at your material. We’ll make sure that it’s rid of errors not just in spelling, but also in grammar, punctuation, word usage, etc. To learn more about our proofreading and copyediting services, e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For the complete article, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14130854.