We’re pleased to announce new research showing that for many UK SMEs, their new year’s resolution involves ramping up digital adoption to help grow their businesses. Today’s Q4 2017 SME Growth Tracker, a report by Capital Economics commissioned by us and Enterprise Nation, reveals that nearly 9 in 10 SMEs expect to be selling online by the end of next year compared to 64 per cent of SMEs who say they sell online today.
The report, now in its second year and informed by a comprehensive YouGov survey of over 1,000 SMEs, provides an assessment of the confidence and health of UK SMEs and monitors key financial and economic trends of businesses that account for 60 per cent of UK private sector employment.
The significant increase in the number of SMEs planning to use e-commerce in the coming year is primarily driven by a surge in business owners planning to sell via their own company website (rising from 50 per cent to 68 per cent) and their own mobile apps (increasing from 13 per cent to 24 per cent). More businesses also expect to sell via third party online retailers (rising from 21 per cent to 27 per cent).
SMEs who use e-commerce anticipate significantly faster revenue and jobs growth next year. Compared to SMEs that don’t use e-commerce, those who do are expecting more than triple the revenue growth (+1.9 per cent compared to +0.6 per cent) and double the jobs growth (+0.8 per cent compared to +0.4 per cent).
Throughout 2017, we have seen the benefits of digital realised for tens of thousands of UK businesses who boosted their revenue, productivity and exports through selling on Amazon, AWS and other digital services. Next year we plan to run more Amazon Academies so more small businesses can benefit from the digital economy.
Learn more about the latest Q4 SME Growth Tracker results here.
See how small businesses around the UK have grown through Amazon here.
