STUDY · GENEVA · OCTOBER 2026
Geneva's independent shops online
Of 7,751 independent storefront businesses in the canton of Geneva, 3,613, or 47%, have no website we could find or a weak one. TAO Labs survey of 26 September 2026, corrected on 2 October.
The TAO Labs survey · Canton of Geneva
Nearly one independent business in two is hard to find online.
- independent storefront businesses counted
- 7,751
- no website found
- 2,480
- with a weak website
- 1,133
Only 12 businesses have nothing but a social media or directory page; the other 4,126 have a sound website. A weak website is unavailable, insecure, abandoned or hard to use on a phone. “No website found” does not prove that none exists.
Key findings
- 47%
Nearly one business in two
has no website we could find (32%) or a weak one (15%). For a customer searching on Google or asking an AI assistant, it is hard to find, or found in poor shape.
- 66%
Of hair and beauty salons
have no website found or a weak one: the most exposed trade, against 43% of restaurants, cafés and bars.
- 385
Websites that no longer open
one weak website in three: the domain name has expired or the server is gone. Another 267 show a security warning before the page itself.
- 57%
In 1203, against 34% in 1204
The gaps between neighbourhoods are wide: Saint-Jean and Charmilles on one side, the city centre and Old Town on the other. Outside the City, Vernier and Meyrin are above 51%.
By trade
The share of businesses with no website found or a weak one, for the four trades we serve, then for all other storefront businesses.
No website foundWeak website
Show the full table
| Trade | Businesses | No website found | Weak website | Social media only | No website or a weak one |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hair and beauty | 806 | 434 | 100 | 11 | 66% |
| Trades | 402 | 142 | 62 | 0 | 51% |
| Shops and retail | 1,910 | 692 | 220 | 0 | 48% |
| Restaurants, cafés and bars | 1,799 | 472 | 304 | 1 | 43% |
| Other storefront businesses | 2,834 | 740 | 447 | 0 | 42% |
By municipality
Municipalities with 100 businesses or more, then the postcodes of the City of Geneva. The CSV file lists every municipality with 10 businesses or more.
No website foundWeak website
Municipality
Postcode (City of Geneva)
Show the full table
| Municipality | Businesses | No website found | Weak website | Social media only | No website or a weak one |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geneva (City) | 4,249 | 1,373 | 603 | 6 | 47% |
| Carouge | 627 | 170 | 107 | 2 | 44% |
| Vernier | 424 | 152 | 65 | 0 | 51% |
| Lancy | 341 | 105 | 48 | 2 | 45% |
| Meyrin | 323 | 122 | 43 | 0 | 51% |
| Plan-les-Ouates | 213 | 46 | 36 | 0 | 38% |
| Satigny | 207 | 59 | 33 | 0 | 44% |
| Chêne-Bourg | 125 | 45 | 17 | 0 | 50% |
| Thônex | 122 | 50 | 14 | 0 | 52% |
| Collonge-Bellerive | 116 | 30 | 16 | 0 | 40% |
| Versoix | 111 | 33 | 14 | 0 | 42% |
| The other 34 municipalities (details in the CSV file) | 893 | 295 | 137 | 2 | 48% |
| Postcode (City of Geneva) | Businesses | No website found | Weak website | Social media only | No website or a weak one |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1201 | 933 | 298 | 140 | 1 | 47% |
| 1205 | 856 | 313 | 129 | 3 | 52% |
| 1204 | 683 | 137 | 92 | 0 | 34% |
| 1207 | 634 | 195 | 87 | 0 | 44% |
| 1202 | 327 | 119 | 52 | 1 | 52% |
| 1203 | 306 | 135 | 40 | 0 | 57% |
| 1227 | 218 | 65 | 27 | 0 | 42% |
| 1206 | 150 | 59 | 19 | 0 | 52% |
| 1208 | 92 | 33 | 14 | 1 | 51% |
| 1209 | 43 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 49% |
What makes a website weak
For each of the 1,133 weak websites, the most serious issue found. Each bar is compared with the most frequent issue.
Method
How the 7,751 businesses were counted and classified, and what the figures do not say.
Who is counted. Establishments in the Geneva cantonal business register (REG, published by the cantonal labour inspectorate and the SITG), as of 26 September 2026, whose premises are a shop, a restaurant or bar, a workshop or a sports and leisure venue. Businesses with three or more establishments, and those headquartered outside the canton, are excluded: their website is decided at head office, not at the counter. Trades follow the REG's NOGA codes.
How online presence is checked. From 23 to 26 September 2026, for each establishment: the website declared in the REG is read; without a declared website, plausible domain names (the business name, with or without the municipality) are queried one by one, and a page is kept only if it shows the phone number, or the business name and postcode; when only one of the two appears, a language model decides. Websites shown on Google Business Profiles are taken into account; re-read on 2 October, they moved 160 businesses out of “no website found”.
Classes. No website found; social media or directory only; weak website (no longer responds, shows an error or a security warning, is parked, is not mobile-friendly, or has not been updated for five years or more); sound website. Each website is counted once, under its most serious issue.
Limits. Classification is automatic: a website whose name differs greatly from the shop's can be missed, and a closed shop can remain in the REG. The figures are orders of magnitude, rounded in the text. No business is named, and any group of fewer than 10 businesses is merged into “other”.
Reusing the data
Free to reuse, provided the source is credited.
The aggregates, as CSV
One row per group: canton, trade, municipality, postcode, weak-website issue. UTF-8, labels in French, Creative Commons BY 4.0 licence.
Download the CSV fileCredit: TAO Labs, “Les commerces genevois en ligne” (Geneva's independent shops online), survey of 26 September 2026 corrected on 2 October, taolabs.ch
Journalists and associations: for a question about the method or a specific breakdown, write to alexis@taolabs.ch.
Updates
The study is redone every quarter, at the same address. Next update: January 2027.
- 9 October 2026: first publication (survey of 26 September, corrected on 2 October).
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