A low percentage of companies received payments via the internet

Figures from Lloyds TSB Scotland suggest that only 60% of production and manufacturing companies have websites.

Lloyds TSB's chief economist Donald MacRae said this could be due to concerns over online security or a general mistrust of technology.

Scottish Enterprise said firms could lose out to more efficient rivals.

The Lloyds TSB Business Monitor found that 72% of service companies have websites.

It said that 53% of the production sector and 55% of the service industry had received orders via their website, but only 15% and 14% of payments were received for each sector respectively.

If businesses fail to invest for the future, they could be overtaken by more efficient and productive competitors Charlie Stewart Scottish Enterprise

"There appears to be a group of companies who are hesitant towards using the internet and it would be interesting to know if this is because they perceive it as being of no use to them - from an advertising or transactional point of view - or something else," Mr MacRae said.

"When it comes to e-commerce and payments via the web, again it would be interesting to find out if the figures are low because of concerns over online security or a general mistrust of technology.

"Or perhaps it may be as simple as their current method works and they see no benefit in change for the sake of change."

The figures improve for e-mail with 72% of production firms and 89% of those in the service sector taking advantage of the system.

Customer expectations

Charlie Stewart, head of e-business at Scottish Enterprise said: "Many firms do not seem to be making the best use of the possibilities that e-business and the internet have to offer.

"There are of course exceptions, but we believe most businesses will benefit from optimising their use of e-business and their web presence.

"If businesses fail to invest for the future, they may not meet customers' expectations and could be overtaken by more efficient and productive competitors."

The findings follow a study by Lloyds TSB Business and the SERTeam at the Open University which reported that a quarter of small firms (24%) said they found it hard to keep pace with technological change.

A fifth (18%) believed that technology had taken the 'personal touch' out of working relationships.