Partner Article

Sitting on a small fortune: Britain's 'Armchair Economy'

Christoph Rieche, CEO and founder of iwoca says a new ’Armchair Economy’ is propping up the ailing UK economy.

There are over 300,000 UK businesses selling online in an ecommerce market worth €50 billion. In the past five years 367,000 people have become their own boss, taking the total to 4.2m, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics.

In a near standstill UK economy, ecommerce is the only sector to forecast doubledigit growth and is set to account for almost a quarter of total UK retail by 2016. As more people seize the opportunity to make a living from home and set up shop online, this growing ‘Armchair Economy’ has the potential to become the UK’s saviour.

Looking to Europe, the UK is the largest ecommerce market and is by far the biggest ecommerce exporter, accounting for a third of Europe’s €36 billion online crossborder sales, as shown in IMRG data. This is generating a huge income for Britain and provides further evidence of the role ecommerce plays in propping up the rest of the UK economy.

iwoca provides business loans to online retailers and we’ve seen an increasing number of people choosing to work for themselves and set up their own online businesses. iwoca’s business has doubled in size every quarter since the company’s inception and has now issued thousands of loans to online sellers. By looking directly at the sales data and customer feedback for a business, we really take the time to understand our customers, their businesses and ambitions and provide them with a tailored finance plan to help them grow.

iwoca customer, 23-year-old Saul Page, is an eBay/Amazon Marketplace seller and owner of website GoArmy.co.uk. He’s the perfect example of the type of business contributing to the Armchair Economy. He started selling army clothing and outdoor equipment from home in October 2012, quickly turning into a profitable, globally exporting, rapid growth business - seeing a staggering 25% increase in sales month by month.

Although the wider UK economy has stagnated, ecommerce is clearly growing.

Looking at our own particular customer base, it is clear that people are realising the opportunities of setting up their own businesses from home and contributing to the Armchair Economy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Christoph Rieche .