Australia is one of the top five export destinations for products sold by UK eBayers, according to a recent report.

Exports to Europe Lag behind

The eBay Small Business Exports Index, which summarised the results of a survey of small UK businesses selling via eBay, found that Australia and the US are the most popular export destinations.

Germany, France and Italy make up the rest of the top five, but only 32% of the businesses surveyed considered Europe to be a key market.

Online Trading Boots Exports

The survey found that 93% of the UK eBay traders surveyed  fulfilled overseas orders in 2015, compared to  just 28% of businesses that do not trade online. These online traders exported, on average, to 20 different territories – and 13% said they planned to expand their overseas trade in 2016.

52% of those questioned say that exporting is about finding “lands of opportunity” in new markets, rather than about risk. More than one in 10 (13%) said they planned to expand their overseas trade in 2016.

“More small online businesses are expanding into new markets with increasing vigour and we’re seeing growing numbers of micro-multinational businesses emerging,” says Kit Glover, Director of Professional Selling & Cross Border Trade of eBay said. These are agile businesses capable of selling to a global audience, without the infrastructure of a traditional exporter. “This creates a domino effect of job creation across different sectors, from manufacturing and services to procure more products, to logistics and delivery firms shipping more goods. This is good news for small business, and good news for Britain.”

More Export Help Needed

The majority of these small businesses, though, feel they need more help to begin or expand overseas trading. 63% said they want more help than the Government currently provides in this area, and the main areas of difficulty were identified as delivery and logistical challenges (27%), and language barriers (13%).

Lesley Batchelor, Director General of the Institute of Export, which is running the government-backed Open to Export scheme, said: ‘Many small businesses are often put off from exporting by difficulties ranging from tariff codes to cultural issues and language barriers. But to realise the Government’s ambitious target of £1 trillion exports by 2020, many more small and medium size businesses in Britain need to start selling their wares abroad.”