IT NEWS NIGERIA:
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that use online tools to trade globally increase their revenue, chances of survival and create jobs more than businesses that fail to take advantage of internet enablers, according to latest International Trade Report .
The Future of Business Survey Trade Report July 2017 showcases how online tools play an important role in SMEs’ ability to trade internationally and grow. IT NEWS NIGERIA also learned that Future of Business Survey is aimed at helping businesses succeed in the new mobile economy and to understand their current environment. this is because, better business insights can inform decision-making at all levels and help businesses grow.
“Exporters agree that using online tools for selling internationally has increased their revenue and small businesses that trade globally increase jobs.”
It added that SMEs attribute growth – in revenue, resources, and employees – to their use of online tools to trade internationally. ‘58% of exporters agree that using online tools for selling internationally has increased their revenue.’
The International Trade Report also detailed that, as regards exporting SMEs, trade is at the core of their business models and success Among exporting SMEs, 4 in 10 report that morte than 25% of their revenue comes from international trade. Exporters rely on online tools to trade internationally. Nearly half of exporting SMEs (45%) report that more than 75% of their international sales depend on online tools.
furthermore, consistent with past results, SMEs that trade internationally are more confident and more likely to increase jobs. Traders are 5 percentage points more confident in their businesses, and 10 percentage points more likely to have added jobs in the last six months than non-traders.
However, International trade is a challenge to SMEs, and only a minority of SMEs trade internationally. Almost half of exporters (48%) identified “selling to foreign countries” as a challenge.
IT NEWS NIGERIA gathered that, the exercise, launched in February 2016, with 22 countries now includes 42. Since January 2017, added: Czech Republic, Ecuador, Hungary, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and Taiwan, China. The 42 countries represent economies accounting for 40% of the world’s population⁵ and 73% of global GDP.
As regards the reach, to date, more than 218,000 Facebook business Page owners, from both younger and longer-standing companies across a wide range of sectors, have taken the monthly survey – nearly a 60% increase since January 2017.
The OECD, World Bank, and Facebook collaborated to launch the Future of Business Survey, a new source of information on SMEs.
