Ebay achieves 25% rise in million pound business
New data from Ebay has shown that the number of million pound businesses on Ebay is set to rise by 25% this year.
Ebay said it expects to see 159 ‘million pound businesses’ trading on the site, with the Home and Garden, Fashion, Motors and Consumer Electronics sectors driving growth.
This will be the fourth year of consecutive growth in the number of Ebay millionaires. Last year, five businesses achieved turnover of £1 million in just their first year of trading, and this year, Ebay says over 10% of millionaire businesses are expected to turnover at least £3 million.
Ebay found that nearly all (98%) of this year’s millionaire businesses were boosting their sales through exports. Overseas sales from Ebay’s UK SMEs accounted for £446 million of sales on the site in 2010. New figures project that 11 of this year’s millionaire businesses will see over £500,000 of revenue generated through exports, with two online SMEs projected to achieve over £1 million of sales in exports alone. The top export markets for Ebay SMEs are the United States, Australia, Germany, Ireland and France.
Commenting on the figures Angus McCarey, Retail Director for Ebay UK said: “We’ve seen a surge of businesses starting up on Ebay since the recession which shows the vital role online businesses play in supporting the fragile UK economy. Many Ebay businesses including some of our millionaires are selling offline as well so their total contribution to the UK economy is even more substantial.
“Whilst the UK economy is often compared unfavourably to Germany, our figures show good reason to be optimistic. Online SMEs are growing faster on Ebay.co.uk with millionaire businesses developing at three times the rate compared to Germany.
“Exports are helping to drive this success as UK SMEs benefit from the international audience that selling online gives them. There are considerable opportunities for SMEs willing to ship internationally to EU and global customers.”
