As many as 70 per cent of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) believe that their \u2018personalised approach\u2019 to customer service and sales gives them a unique edge over larger competitors in the retail sector, a new study suggests.<\/p>\n
The figures come from a far-reaching survey carried out by logistics firm Shutl in recent weeks, which found that the vast majority of SMEs are feeling confident about growth and trading conditions over the next 18 months, regardless of the political and economic uncertainties of recent times.<\/p>\n
However, despite this burgeoning confidence, Shutl\u2019s study revealed that almost three quarters (73 per cent) of smaller businesses are worried about the increasing prominence of large online retailers in recent years \u2013 which could pose a threat to their business in terms of online and on-demand sales.<\/p>\n
59 per cent of SME respondents said that they felt larger distribution and delivery networks gave big-brand retailers an unfair advantage.<\/p>\n
However, 34 per cent said that they felt they would have no trouble competing effectively if they had access to better e-commerce technology or delivery options.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the study, Jason Tavaria, head of Shutl, said: \u201cThe results of this survey point to buoyant SME retailers, who are increasingly using technology and smarter selling options to compete against the bigger retailers with larger budgets.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday delivery is no longer such a big USP. Carriers have become increasingly savvy about the SME group as a compelling audience, and in turn costs have reduced and technology is supporting an infrastructure that is dynamic and cost effective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThus the continuing technological innovation to support SMEs is making it easier, and more cost effective for this group to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As many as 70 per cent of UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) believe that their \u2018personalised approach\u2019 to customer service and sales gives them a unique edge over larger competitors in the retail sector, a new study suggests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}