Sellerdeck Publishes 2008 Research on UK SME Retail Market
This seventh Sellerdeck retail market survey was undertaken by pfa Research on a sample of 277 randomly-selected small and medium-sized retailers, of whom 96 had E-Commerce web sites.
Key findings are that the number of retailers with E-Commerce sites has risen to over 35%, from 11% in 2006 – confirming trends reported by bodies such as the IMRG. Of those that don’t have an E-Commerce site 22% claim they have firm plans to launch one. A quarter (26%) of businesses questioned operate across three channels (the high street, E-Commerce and mail or telephone orders (MOTO)). A third (34%) of all businesses sampled have electronic point of sale (EPOS) in-store. Of the remainder 13% state they have firm plans to implement a system.
Chris Barling, CEO of Sellerdeck comments-
Times are tough for retailers so I’m sure that the take up of E-Commerce will be significant in 2009 as it is the only channel where profits and growth are still on the up. However the use of integrated software applications across multiple channels is still limited to a minority of retailers, so there is a clear market here.
The full report is available free from http://downloads.actinic.com/docs/Actinic-SME-Retail-Technology-Report-2008.pdf or by email from jane.lee at dexterity.co.uk.
Additional highlights from the 2008 Sellerdeck Survey:
- Taking orders via post or telephone (MOTO) has increased from 39% (in 2006 report) to 74%.
- >10% of businesses are now selling via a major marketplace, with eBay and Amazon being the most popular.
- 6% of businesses operate across four channels including E-Commerce, retail, MOTO and via a marketplace.
- 66% of businesses state that their E-Commerce websites are profitable.
- 26% of online retailers have lost money as a result of online fraud.
- 60% built their own web site (against 45% in 2006) and the same proportion have implemented their own EPOS system.
- 70% created a bespoke site and 58% opted for a customised EPOS system.
3D graphs from the survey are available from Dexterity. Tel +44 (0)1273 470199, jane.lee at dexterity.co.uk West Byfleet, Surrey – 26 January 2009