The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is setting out a range of proposals in its new publication – Net Benefits? Small Business Use Of Online Platforms – to protect and promote small business owners who use online sales platforms, to ensure that small firms can make the most of the opportunities of trading online.
Seven in ten of the small firms surveyed by the FSB, using online e-commerce platforms, said that they are important to their business. However, fake reviews, late payments, infringement of intellectual property, (IP), and de-ranking of small businesses’ products or services were some of the concerns raised by the research participants. Additionally, two in five small firms surveyed, who had encountered an issue with an online platform, said it was difficult to resolve the issue.
“E-commerce sites are an indispensable part of everyday life for millions of people, and many thousands of small businesses make use of them to get their product or service in front of as many people as possible,” comments FSB’s Policy chair Tina McKenzie. “However, there is a huge mismatch between small firms and online platforms in terms of size, resources, and, ultimately, power. A small firm that feels like it has not had a complaint fully investigated might think that it has no further recourse, leading to frustration.”
She continued: “Small firms are calling out for more to be done on issues such as protection of their intellectual property, while platforms should commit to paying businesses as promptly as possible. A figure that would be a rounding error for a large e-commerce site could easily be the difference between survival or closure for a small firm. Making the relationship between small firms and online platforms as transparent and as stable as possible will ultimately benefit all parties.”
The FSB report includes recommendations for regulators, platforms and the Government, based on FSB’s reasonable opinion, derived from the results of the research, as to what could be done to resolve or improve many of the difficulties small firms face.
The FSB survey was carried out by research agency Verve from 28 October to 10 November 2022, and was completed by 1,054 small businesses.
For a copy of the full report, email jo.tacon@fsb.org.uk
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