Ecommerce confidence high amongst UK SMEs. (IT News).

The results of Actinics second annual report on the sums of the UK ecommerce market amongst small and medium enterprises (SMEs). show that ecommerce is still gaining acceptance as an effective sales medium amongst SMES; that there has been a significant leap in profitable sites; and that the importance of the inteRNet to business is still increasing.

A PDF copy of the report is available at www.actinieftp.co.uk/dos/ecreport02.pd

The 2002 survey collected responses from 250 independently selected organisations with 1-249 employees, all of whom had a live web site. Its aims were to establish the adoption and intention to adopt online trading amongst UK SMES, and to monitor the experiences, expectations and perceptions towards ecommerce.

Report Conclusions:

* Ecommerce still gaining ground amongst UK SMEs

* The adoption of ecommerce amongst SMEs remains static at 26% of the sample in 2002, versus 25 % in 2001. A further 11% of SMEs (who have not yet implemented ecommerce) have firm plans to develop an online sales facility during the next twelve months.

* This highlights that whilst many ecommerce sites have ceased trading over the last year, new ecommerce sites are still being set-up at a similar rate and many new sites are currently being planned. Confidence is still out there.

* Ecommerce profitability increases and fuels further development and upgrades

* 72% of ecommerce sites claimed profitability during 2002, over 59% in 2001. In addition 61% of respondents plan further development to their ecommerce site. This is seen as a reflection of an increasing confidence amongst site owners for further investment.

* The importance of the internet to business is still increasing Another finding that emerged is that respondents currently consider ecommerce to be the most important business use of the internet and they also believe that this is set to become even stronger in the future. For those businesses with no plans for ecommerce a key reason given was the lack of customer demand,. suggesting that it is still the consumer who is driving companies onto the net.Businesses are ,it seems,doing the right thing in listening to their customers, but they haven't grasped the potential benefits to themselves in terms of cost savings and increased efficiency.

www.actinic.co.uk