We’re entering an era of digital empowerment for small business, that according to Amazon UK Country Manager Doug Gurr, is “levelling the playing field” between large and small businesses.
Gurr, who laid out the philosophy at the Amazon Academy - a one day incubator for small businesses - argued there will be even more innovations coming along to help “energetic, entrepreneurial businesses” grow.
To highlight the pace of technological change, Gurr shared that internally, Amazon has an ‘it’s still day one’ philosophy, despite having operated for over 20 years and in 15 countries.
“Our belief is that we are still only at the very early stages of internet technology,” says Gurr. “We are just only beginning to understand and work through the implications for businesses. And we believe the pace of change will be accelerating and not decelerating going forward.”
Amazon Academy, held at the Amazon Fashion Photography Studios in East London; November 2016. Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian
A large part of this expansion is likely to come from exports as technological innovations - such as Amazon Marketplace - make it easier for SMEs to trade abroad despite language barriers and often confusing regulations.
Gurr revealed figures showing over 60% of UK businesses selling on Marketplace are exporting around the globe, and these businesses will export over £1.8bn worth of goods this year, a surge of 29% year-on-year.
Amazon launched a new service at the beginning of November called the Amazon Global Store in an attempt to boost exports for British businesses even further by stripping out the complications of trading in complex markets such as China and India.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of organisations and what most of them say is China looks super exciting, there’s a lot of potential customers and there’s an enormous demand for high quality authentic British goods, but boy it is difficult,” said Gurr. “They say ‘I don’t speak the language, I’m not sure I understand the regulation, and the customs and excise system looks confusing’.”
The Amazon Global Store aims to strip out the hard work for vendors by automatically carrying out time consuming and difficult tasks, including translating product information into the native language, providing local payment options and customer services and handling any customs remittance.
International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox has said that Amazon’s efforts are a “welcome boost” for exports and credits Marketplace as a “great way for UK businesses to break into overseas markets and grow their businesses”.
“We want to help more small and medium sized organisations take their first step into exporting, and that’s why we’ve created a new great.gov.uk exporting digital hub, linking in with tools and guidance from Amazon, to help them get best possible support and advice,” said Fox.
Emma Jones MBE, founder of business support community Enterprise Nation, believes there “needs to be a bit of a nudge in behaviour to encourage British companies to export”.
She understands British companies can feel “comfortable” by solely trading in the domestic marketing because of the ease, but argues companies such as Amazon are helping to remove barriers to international trade.
In this time of political turmoil British businesses have a responsibility to “keep calm and carry on trading”, according to Jones.
She is hopeful the £1bn investment in broadband infrastructure announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond in the Autumn Statement will help empower more small businesses.
“The Government is making sure this country is hard wired so you can make the most of the digital opportunity, and if anything, we think that is what the role of Government should be,” said Jones. “At Enterprise Nation we see people every day who are running a global business from their kitchen table. They are doing it by harnessing the digital world and websites such as Amazon are doing a great job supporting them as they build and grow their businesses.”
Rajesh Agrawal, a fintech entrepreneur appointed by Sadiq Khan as Deputy Mayor of London for Business, highlighted figures supporting the importance of small businesses to London’s economy.
“They may be called small businesses, but they contribute over £400bn a year to London’s business turnover and they employ about 50% of London’s entire workforce and represent 99.8% of all the businesses in London,” said Agrawal.
City Hall is supporting small businesses to export through the Mayor’s International Business Programme.
This initiative included a trade delegation of 30 of the capital’s fastest growing tech companies being taken to Chicago and New York to meet potential investors, partners and customers.
“I’ve gone from being a carpenter to being a gardener now,” said Agrawal. “I’m now supporting the ecosystem rather than creating a business.”
The ecosystem Amazon has created through the Marketplace website now supports over 74,000 UK jobs, according to Gurr.
Globally customers purchased more than a billion units from third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace, and today, half of purchases on Amazon’s global sites come from Marketplace sellers.
This proportion could grow further if Amazon is successful in its ambition to help make it as easy for small businesses to trade internationally as domestically, through its digital and physical services and initiatives like the Amazon Academy.
“It is about education and there is also a role for many parties to play in terms of trying to take away as much complexity as we can,” concludes Gurr.
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