A new report has put the spotlight on how SMEs are driving growth and innovation in digital trade.
The report, The Digitalisation of Trade: SMEs Driving Innovation, demonstrates how a number of factors, including the new post-Brexit relationship with the EU, the COVID-19 pandemic and problems with the supply chain have accelerated the issue.
The Institute of Export & International Trade (IOE&IT) and the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) published the report to coincide with the Department for International Trade’s International Trade Week this month.
The report highlights how digitalising trade will increase efficiencies, reduce the cost of doing business and allow for more sustainable practices, as well as removing key barriers to entry to international trade, suffered by new and smaller companies.
A recent estimate by the International Chambers of Commerce suggested that when digital and trade are married together, the benefit could be as much as a staggering nine trillion dollars by 2026.
Experienced entrepreneurs have a different way of seeing the world and its problems, according to the report, and have the ability to come up with innovative solutions.
As a result, many large companies are setting up their own venture capital units to capitalise on what entrepreneurs and early-stage companies bring to the table.
Marco Forgione, director general of the IOE&IT said: “Digitalisation is most often talked about in connection with trade as a transformative technology, something that will help traders to trade more efficiently, faster and compliantly.
“International trade is a force for good, transforming nations and communities. Digital technologies can help it do that on a fair and sustainable basis.”
He added that digitalisation as a transformative technology is about the free flow of data and the integration of different actors’ systems through technology.
Roderick Beer is managing director of UK Business Angels Association, the trade body for early-stage investing. He commented: “I am delighted to have partnered with the IOE&IT on this report, focusing on where the opportunities are for SMEs when it comes to the digitalisation of the sector.”
He added: “With over £2 billion invested every year into exciting, innovative, UK-based businesses, it is important to ensure a steady supply of risk capital into these early-stage businesses that, although small today, will drive the sector’s technological advancements of the future.
“Working closely with the investment community to build awareness of the opportunities that trade-supporting technologies present, will be key in ensuring a thriving base of innovators that will ultimately make the UK a better place from which to do business.”
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