Here you go, Philip
http://www.ebay-mediacentre.co.uk/imagelibrary/detail.asp?MediaDetailsID=63Two-thirds of etailers “confident” about future, says eBay surveyby Sue Bailey
funky graphsOnline businesses are meeting their sales targets and are confident about the year ahead, despite concerns about lack of consumer demand and the high cost of supply. So says the latest edition of eBay UK’s latest round of their Online Business Index, which measures the state of online retail by following the fortunes of 700 merchants who take an average of 61% of their turnover on the site.
54% of those surveyed expected their sales to increase over the next year: with 70% expecting profit margins to increase or stay the same, the mood is generally very bullish.
But eBay’s findings do suggest that merchants are working harder to achieve the targets they’ve set themselves. Only 10% (down from 12% last year) said they had “considerably” failed to achieve the requisite number of sales, but only 31% (down from 45%) said they had achieved them “easily”: most (38%, up from 27%) had reached targets “with difficulty”.
The cost of supplies and consumer demand remained the two biggest barriers to growth cited, though sterling’s recovery meant that problems with exchange rates were mentioned by only 38% (down from 52%) of merchants. The number of people citing access to credit or finance as a problem also fell substantially, suggesting that credit is starting to be available again.
Happily, only 9% of those surveyed described themselves as pessimistic about the future, down from 15% this time last year. 65% of those surveyed said they were “confident” about the outlook for their businesses. Check out the full survey in eBay’s PDF.
Do you agree with the merchants who talked to eBay? Are you expecting your sales and prices to increase this year? What’s the biggest barrier to growth in your business? And are you feeling confident, or pessimistic? Leave us a comment.
