In the Irish Presidency Special Issue of the EU’s Parliament Magazine, Stefan Krawczyk, eBay Inc. Associate General Counsel & Head of EMEA Government Relations, urges the EU to prioritise digital empowerment of small businesses.  Research commissioned by eBay clearly shows that web technologies can empower small businesses to compete on more equal terms with larger companies, and to grow their businesses on their own terms.

Our figures show that more than 90% of German, UK and French sellers with significant sales on the eBay marketplace are exporters, and four-fifths of them export to five or more countries.  This ability to generate sales through exporting is a significant growth enabler, while new entrants to the eBay marketplace can rapidly catch up with established firms and achieve significant market share within a shorter time frame than their offline counterparts.

eBay is committed to facilitating trade between buyers and sellers globally.  Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who complement their traditional retailing skills with the web technologies offered by online platforms should not risk seeing their supply blocked on the basis of restrictive distribution agreements.  If the EU truly wants to see healthy growth in web-enabled retail, powered by SMEs, it should take strong, decisive and rapid action against such practices.  A topic we have written about before.

Click here to see Stefan’s full article.