Small and medium businesses (SMBs) continue to digitalise.
This is one of the key findings from the Alibaba.com US B2B Small and Medium Business (SMB) Survey, according to which SMBs have accelerated their pivot to digital since January 2020.
According to the survey of 5 015 US-based SMBs, 93% of B2B companies are now conducting some portion of their business online, up from 90% in December, and 43% are utilising ecommerce, an 8% increase over the same time period.
In addition, SMBs are finding opportunities internationally. Even with supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, 63% of B2B companies report conducting some amount of cross border B2B trade, up from 59% in December.
In fact, SMB manufacturers surpassed other industries in digitisation. Aamid the pandemic, manufacturers’ online B2B trade increased 8% – twice the rate of the overall 4% increase in all industries for the same period and tied with retail as the industries with the most digital growth. In December, US manufacturers’ online B2B trade volume lagged all other industries except construction but have now passed multiple industries in their pivot to digital.
“We were happy to see the increasing digitization of US B2B companies and that many are increasing trade despite the pandemic, showing the resilience and grit of American business owners and entrepreneurs,” says John Caplan, president of North America and Europe of Alibaba.com. “Our research finds that digitization is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have for companies in every industry to bridge from surviving to thriving in the next era of business.”
Additional highlights from the Alibaba.com US B2B SMB Survey include:
SMBs are Optimistic in Their Business and Recovery
* SMBs are optimistic about their business with 85% saying they are confident about the future of their business.
* The majority of SMBs (62%) managed through the pandemic, maintaining or increasing their business when compared to 2019 levels.
Even More US B2B SMBs Digitised During the Pandemic and Are Hiring to Support their Online Growth
* 56% hired and retained new staff to support their ecommerce operations since the start of the pandemic, and 79% plan to hire employees over the next year to support their increased online business.
* 42% of respondents saw increases in online B2B transactions in the past six months with more than three-quarters (75%) finding increased demand for ecommerce marketplaces such as Alibaba.com.
* Online B2B companies are far more confident than offline: 86% of those doing business online expressing optimism in the future of their business compared with 68% of those who are not yet doing business online.
Digital Acceleration is Driving Global Business
* Cross border business is increasing in importance for B2B companies, making up an average of 25% of their business – an increase from 17% in December.
* Respondents said key benefits of ecommerce include helping them access international markets (24%) and built-in translation services that help communicate with trading partners in different languages (16%).
SMB Manufacturers are Confident and Accelerating to Catch Up Digitally
* Manufacturers over-indexed in investments in ecommerce during Covid-19: more than two-thirds (68%) of manufacturing businesses hired new staff to support online trade compared with 56% overall.