SMBs investing in e-commerce specialists for online growth

Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - 09:58 by Graham Miller

Small and medium sized businesses across the UK are choosing to hire dedicated staff members, whose main responsibility is handling the online side of their operations, according to a report from Freelancer.co.uk.

SMBs appreciate that there is a growing need to offer safe shopping online through secure websites, so that customers who want to buy via the internet, can do so without impediment.

Report spokesperson, Matt Barrie, explained that the high street retail market was facing a major problem in the wake of the ever-expanding e-commerce boom, with consumers no longer being limited to shopping online at the stores that are within the immediate vicinity of their homes.

Mr Barrie said that there were plenty of major retailers who had seen their businesses disintegrate because of a lack of online presence and smaller companies in the UK were hoping to avoid similar fates, by strategically acquiring e-commerce experts.

He even argued that the giants of the high street today could all eventually crumble, if the majority of people eventually choose to carry out safe shopping online.

Smaller retailers are in a slightly different position, because the web actually frees them up, to offer their products and services to a larger audience.

The high streets of the UK have been monopolised by a handful of chains for some time, with independent stores pushed to the fringes or rubbed out completely.

Thankfully, the web means that catering to niche markets is a very viable proposition, since even if your audience is spread thinly across the country, it can be reached through a single e-commerce site.

With more jobs being created amongst small businesses, thanks to e-commerce expansion, there should be obvious economic benefits for the UK as a whole, which in turn, should stimulate retail through additional spending.