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Small business goes online

With 51% of commerce now on the Web, SMEs up until now have kept a low profile; now many find signing up to platforms such as Amazon boosts sales

On July 11, the online retail giant Amazon celebrated Prime Day with special offers all-day for subscribers to its ’Prime’ service. The operator said sales had broken the record with increases of 60% over last year. The impact seems unstoppable and at the same rate that it consolidates, consumers are becoming more attracted to this form of shopping, forcing small businesses to find their way onto the Net.

According to a study on digital transformation in retail in Catalonia among 169 brands, 51.1% are signed up to e-commerce, dropping to 40% for traders with a single outlet. The President of Comertia, Juan Carlos Calbet, recognises that it is a difficult task “because you have to ensure that the shopping experience can accommodate two channels and this requires investment.” In fact the president of PIMEC Trade, Alexandre Goñi believes that the percentage of smaller shops online is lower than 10%. . Comertia reports that in 77% of the businesses that sell online, sales do not reach 10% of their total. Online commerce is a different ball game and buyers expect to pay less for the product. For small business, cutting margins back seems like suicide. Santi Roman, of the OBS Business School OBS, says that for profitable online business there is also a change of chip needed as it involves a lot more work than people imagine.”

Amazon itself is now offering a solution by giving SMEs the opportunity to sign up to use its platform where consumers access their products in the same way as they would normal Amazon services, cutting out the investment needed for logistics which would be impossible for SMEs to assume.

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