21/07/2011
The e-commerce industry will double in size within four years, researchers have predicted.
According to Management Today, industry experts IMRG and eDigitalResearch have estimated that 750,000 Brits are currently employed in online commerce but that this figure should reach 1.5 million by 2015.
The predictions were based on figures indicating that almost two thirds of online businesses had hired staff over the last year whilst just under three quarter of e-commerce departments had experienced growth in turnover during that time.
Speaking to womenintechnology.co.uk, IMRG chief executive James Roper said that e-commerce was providing much welcomed employment opportunities during what remains a poor economic climate.
He said: "The UK leads Europe in e-retail, so many of these new jobs are well paid and right at the cutting edge of commercial innovation, with the skills being developed here arming Britain to win in the ultra-competitive global online marketplace that is already worth billions of pounds per annum."
One way that online businesses could generate the cash to fu
nd employment opportunities is by using sales finance to free up cash held in outstanding invoices.
The IMRG poll shows that four in ten businesses are now making at least 90 per cent of their profit online. With this in mind, it appears that a lot of companies may be choosing this option in the near future.
Joe Elvin