A recent study by the Royal Mail has revealed one in six UK SME online retailers are planning to expand into physical shops in 2014 to increase sales.
The annual study of over 400 UK SME online retailers pointed to the proliferation of websites making online competition tougher. Further to this, 40 per cent of respondents said they plan to leverage new channels to increase trading, with more than half (54 per cent) claiming they were confident of sales growth in 2014 – an eight per cent decrease from last year.
Commenting on the findings, Nick Landon, MD of Royal Mail Parcels, said: “UK SME online retailers are thinking carefully about how they can develop their businesses during 2014. They are concentrating on exploiting as many channels to market as possible, adding space in physical premises and online marketplace listings to complement their existing web channel. In addition, they are concentrating on how to price competitively while increasing the range and quality of their goods.”
