E-commerce in the UK has reshaped the way consumers purchase goods from retailers, with online sales reaching £117.11 billion in 2024 and accounting for 30% of all retail sales. As we see a shift in consumer spending habits, return fraud has increasingly become an issue for retailers of all sizes, posing a threat to their profitability and longevity. Rob Rees, Divisional Director at Markel Direct, the specialist insurer of online retailers, explains what return fraud is and provides tips on how e-commerce businesses can protect themselves from falling victim to this crime. What is return fraud? Return fraud occurs when individuals exploit online retailers’ returns…
Author: sme-admin
UK small businesses are finding practical ways to cut costs, reduce waste, build stronger relationships with suppliers and customers and stand out in a crowded market. New insights from Novuna Business Finance, gathered from interviews with small business owners across sectors including manufacturing, construction, engineering, and technology, reveals ten practical strategies small business owners say are critical to thriving while meeting net zero targets. These findings will form the backbone of Novuna’s forthcoming Small Business Sustainability Insight report, which will include practical tips and insight from business experts on the challenges, opportunities and realities of building a sustainable business The…
This year the FCA has explicitly labelled hidden FX markups imposed by legacy brokers as poor practice rooted in poor communication – yet new data analysis from borderless foreign exchange platform Glyde has revealed the true scale of the issue worldwide for smaller businesses. Analysis of more than 3,400 past transactions over the last three years via Glyde’s free FX rate calculator reveals how much traditional brokers are skimming from global and European trades, often far exceeding what is disclosed to their unknowing customers. The analysis reveals that businesses globally are losing an average of £992.20 per transaction due to hidden FX markups,…
Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the global financial technology platform that makes Intuit TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, today announced the release of the Mailchimp report Holiday Shopping Unwrapped: Marketing Strategies for the Moments That Matter, prepared in conjunction with Canvas8 and Marketoonist. Marketers can turn to this report for seasonal shopping cycles, enhanced insights into consumer behaviour, and tailored marketing strategies for the duration of the festive season—all drawing from expert commentary and a survey of 9,356 respondents across Australia, Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands), Canada, Italy, Spain, Germany, Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), the United Kingdom, and the United States. The report unpacks…
Serge Santos, founder of Funding Alternative Group, argues that traditional banks are failing the UK’s small businesses, and that alternative finance must rise to meet the gap. Walk into any boardroom in the Square Mile and you’ll hear the same mantra: SMEs are the lifeblood of the UK economy. But when it comes to actually backing them – especially when they need funding – too many of our traditional institutions are nowhere to be found. I’ve spent years working in the world of hedge funds and investment banking. Now, as the founder of Funding Alternative Group, I spend every day…
The legal sector has seen a surge in interest from private equity (PE) firms, according to Kelvin Balmont, partner and chairman at national law firm Clarke Willmott LLP. The growing trend of PE-backed consolidations in the UK legal sector is driven by the desire to expand capabilities and market presence, with PE firms applying the same playbook used in other professional services sectors, such as accounting, to what has historically been a more conservative industry. In recent years Fletchers Group, backed by Sun European Partners, has acquired Scott Rees & Co and Shoosmiths’ serious injury practice; Adeptio (backed by Horizon…
The idea of productivity is fairly simple: generate as much output as possible with minimum input. And yet for every single business, the idea of productivity, and specifically how to measure it, is much more complex and nuanced. It would be great if there was one metric which could be captured to definitively measure how productive each and every employee was, but this is rarely the case. We might be able to measure how many products are made each day in a factory, but that doesn’t tell us how well the marketing or finance teams are performing, for example. So,…
Leading plastics innovator recommends migration away from dangerous ecommerce packaging practices. As the world moves towards sustainable practices across all industries, retail and e-commerce businesses are under increasing pressure to reduce the volume of packaging and the environmental damage it creates. E-commerce, in particular, has experienced significant growth in the last decade, with an increasing number of customers opting for next-day packaged delivery rather than picking it up themselves. Without a sustainable solution, the packaging problem which this creates will continue to escalate. “The retail industry is constantly needing to innovate its packaging to meet demand, and to meet environmental…
This week, it has been reported by the ONS that the UK job market continues to weaken as job vacancies fall and the graduate job market specifically has hit its lowest level since 2018. As young people across the UK received their A-Level results last week, new research revealed 75% of 16-19 year olds have aspirations to start a business – with more than a third (36%) already making money from side hustles. Encouraging this entrepreneurial spirit and tackling the leading barriers to entry, Simply Business has partnered with entrepreneur, social mobility advocate and musician Stephen Manderson, better known as Professor Green, to launch the Young Entrepreneur Fund –…
Latest Home Office data analysed by the new global talent firm, Immpact, reveals that workers from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe experienced the highest volume of work visa refusals over 12 months. Further analysis of nearly 500,000 work visa applications found that applicants from Bangladesh (75%), Ghana (77%), Pakistan (80%), Nigeria (80%), and Kenya (86%) had the lowest grant rates statistically for work visas by the Home Office in the year ending September 2024. The latest data* also shows that the Top 20 list of countries applying for UK work visas during this 12 month period includes the US…