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Only 14% of SMBs trade online

By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 23 Apr 2012 at 09:16

Only 14% of small businesses have a web presence, according to a new group set up to encourage them to get online.

Fronted up by the UK's Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox, Go ON UK, has been set up by Age UK, the BBC, the Big Lottery Fund, E.ON, Lloyds Banking Group, the Post Office and TalkTalk.

The organisations said they would “pool resources, share expertise, reach and networks" with the intention of improving web penetration and participation in the UK.

According to research provided by Lloyds, only 14% of the UK's SMEs sell products and services online, while 8.2 million adults have yet to use the web at all - despite Lane Fox having spent two years working to improve uptake through the Race Online project.

“Many individuals and organisations still struggle to exploit the broader benefits of technology, a problem that is particularly acute for our small businesses, older people and charities that are currently at risk of being left behind,” Lane Fox said.

The private sector including small businesses will grow twice as fast as their competitors if they are online

“Go ON UK has an exciting vision to make the UK the world’s most digitally capable nation where no-one – old or disadvantaged and no organisation – even the smallest – is left behind."

Wider remit

According to Lane Fox, the plans formally take over where where Race Online left off. Although she highlighted the fact the 1.8 million had started using the net since that project started, there remains frustration at the number of people still not using the web.

“I met so many people who told me that their lives were profoundly changed after they learnt to use the internet, but we didn’t always put enough effort into the hardest-to-reach groups,” she told The Financial Times.

Go ON UK is intended to extend the work, but also has wider goals to improve the way charities and small business harness the web, with only 40% of smaller charities taking donations online.

“The private sector, including small businesses will grow twice as fast as their competitors if they are online," Lane Fox said, adding that charities faced an urgent need to go online or miss out.

“Failing to act now would result in charities and small businesses operating at a significant disadvantage as the rest of the UK becomes increasingly digital,” Lane Fox said.

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User comments

Hardly big news

The SMP sector also includes the many self-e,ployed people who are by any other name (and in most other countries considered to be) no more than employees.

These self-employed skew the numbers to make it look like most SMBs don't have a web presence, but most don't need one either.

By SwissMac on 23 Apr 2012

Hardly big news

By SwissMac on 23 Apr 2012

Hardly news

By SwissMac on 23 Apr 2012

Misleading

There's a whole world of difference between saying that only 14% of SMEs have a "web presence" and the research findings that only 14% sell products or services online.

Statistics vary, but the consensus seems to be that around 50% of SMEs have a website - it's just that the majority don't sell products through them because of the nature of their business.

Online retail is growing at 16% per year, far outstripping growth in the economy in general. Whilst small businesses should be encouraged to get online, the emphasis should be on getting CUSTOMERS online so they can buy from them and find services that way.

By KevPartner on 24 Apr 2012

Misleading

It's not that only 14% of small businesses have websites but rather that 14% SELL online. The proportion of small businesses that have websites is closer to 50% - still too low but hardly the dire figure suggested.

Given that online retail grew at 16% overall last year, as against zero growth for retail in general, I suggest this isn't a major problem and the new organisation would be better to spend its time focussing on getting more CUSTOMERS online to buy stuff from the 14%.

By KevPartner on 24 Apr 2012

Supply and Demand

I suspect that a lot more businesses might get online if they knew that the custommers for their products and services were served by better than 512Kbps to 2Mbps or so link speeds.

Message to the Government. Ditch the unnecessary £32Bn HS2 rail link, which will benefit few UK citizens, and invest the money in broadband infrastructure for the benefit of the nation as a whole.

By way of a similie, think of the broadband infrastructure investment in the same way that the national grid investment was made in the 1930s, resulting in universal take up of electric supply to the home.

By jontym123 on 25 Apr 2012

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