Member Article

UK SMEs Set to Lose £52.6 Billion

A OnePoll survey, commissioned by AppsBuilder, has uncovered a startling 65.8% of the nation’s 4.9 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) do not currently have a mobile presence; equating to potential lost revenues of £52.6 Billion in the next 12 months alone. (www.getmobilenow.co)

The findings, released this week, reveal that SMEs are not responding fast enough to customers’ changing habits and come amidst a period of unprecedented growth in the number of consumers in the UK using mobile phones to access the Internet, which has doubled in the UK over the last 3 years*.

Increasingly sophisticated consumers regularly use their mobile devices to find businesses, purchase goods or services, compare product prices and seek out deals. With an average of 5% of all retail sales coming via mobile**, businesses who fail to successfully present themselves to a mobile customer are at risk of forgoing a slice of the projected £50 billion in potential revenue that could come from mobile sources over the next 12 months.

The national OnePoll survey of 500 SMEs uncovered that only 18.4% will be adopting a mobile presence in the next 12 months, which leaves a significant 47.4% of SMEs at risk of losing their competitive edge and failing to harness the lucrative power of mobile for sales as well as customer retention.

The survey discovered that the key barrier preventing SMEs from taking advantage of the current mobile revolution was lack of technical knowledge, with 46% citing this as the main preventative factor. This was closely followed by the perceived cost of development with 36% citing this as the key barrier and 35% of SMEs admitting they were unsure of the overall benefits of a mobile presence to their business.

Results also varied drastically on a regional basis with SMEs in East Anglia (59%) and Northern Ireland (55%) more likely to have adopted a mobile presence and businesses in the North East (19%) and the West Midlands (22%) faring worst. London and the South East fared slightly above average with 45% of SMEs still without a mobile presence.

Of those SMEs who have implemented a mobile strategy, 44% spent up to £10,000, 55% spent between £10,000 and £100,000 and a mere 1% spent over £100,000, showing how the cost of adopting mobile has dropped significantly since 2012 when anticipated costs were well over the £100,000 mark.

In a bid to address the shortfall in mobile performance and empower more UK businesses with the knowledge and tools to meet the needs of their customers, AppsBuilder has launched the #GetMobileNow campaign (www.getmobilenow.co) which includes a host of free resources to assist businesses in the switch to mobile operations.

Companies are advised to visit www.getmobilenow.co where they will find access to free educational resources, a dedicated live chat for any questions they have regarding mobile and open registration to the week-long online event SME Mobile Strategies 2014 taking place from 21st - 25th July.

The five-day virtual event, held in association with SuperSummit, is free to attend and features a wealth of speakers, including experts from Facebook, HootSuite, UserTesting and SalesForce plus some of the top digital agencies in the UK and many more. The live, interactive video interview format will provide the perfect opportunity for SMEs to learn how mobile can improve their sales and operations and moreover, how lack of technical expertise needn’t be a barrier to creating a successful mobile presence.

To benefit from this event, businesses are urged to register now at http://supersummit.co/events/mobile-strategies-supersummit-2014

Or visit www.getmobilenow.co for full access to all the free resources as part of #getmobilenow

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jen Roberts .