Amazon Academy Heads to Wales to Help Local SMEs Go Global

The event will feature advice from experts in business, technology, marketing and more from Enterprise Nation, the Department for International Trade, Be the Spark and Be the Business – as well as small businesses who have achieved their own e-commerce and export success. To register for the free event, click here.

“Evidence shows that UK companies are succeeding globally following a growing demand for our goods and services, with UK exports reaching a record high of over six hundred billion in the year to March 2018,” added Baroness Fairhead CBE, Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion. “I’m delighted to Amazon working with DIT to help boost SME exports in Wales and help businesses of all sizes to seize the global opportunities on offer. This includes an increase in the export finance support on offer and the launch of new online tools to help companies match their products with potential new markets.”

Since launching in 2016, the Amazon Academy has helped over 2,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Newcastle learn how to grow their businesses through greater digital adoption. The programme forms parts of Amazon’s ongoing efforts to help SMEs from across the UK grow their businesses, in particular by boosting their export sales.

Amazon offers a suite of support tools to help businesses export their products and services, including providing global delivery and distribution, managing customer services in the local language and translating hundreds of millions of product listings each year on behalf of smaller businesses. As a result, six in ten UK businesses that sell on Amazon are already selling globally, achieving £2.3bn in export sales last year alone.

The Amazon Academy comes during a time when SMEs in Wales are expecting their revenues to fall in the next 12 months, with business confidence in the region the lowest in the UK. The latest SME Growth Tracker, a quarterly report by Capital Economics commissioned by Amazon UK and Enterprise Nation to assess confidence and growth prospects of UK SMEs, found that:

·     Small business owners in Wales say they expect conditions for their company to deteriorate over the coming year

·     SMEs across the UK who use e-commerce project faster overall revenue growth than those that do not use e-commerce, although digital adoption rates amongst SMEs in Wales are currently amongst the lowest in the UK

·     The number of Welsh SMEs who export has doubled in the last two years (52 per cent in 2018 compared to 26 per cent in 2016)

"We’re seeing record numbers of Welsh businesses sell their products to customers around the world, taking their business from local to global,” said Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager, Amazon. “Currently Welsh businesses employ more than 3,000 people to support their sales activities on Amazon and we’d like to see this grow. Through the Amazon Academy we want to help small businesses in Wales grow online to help build a stronger economy and create even more jobs in the region.”

“Websites like Amazon are a great way for SMEs in Wales to break into international markets, and Amazon’s Academy perfectly mirrors our mission to help local SMEs grow their business online,” added Emma Jones MBE, Founder, Enterprise Nation which provides expert advice and support for over 70,000 of Britain's SMEs. “Businesses can reach their true potential by embracing digital technology for export sales, and I’m looking forward to meeting hundreds of SMEs and entrepreneurs at the event in Wales as we help them expand their horizons with talks, workshops and more.”

Rural businesses are also encouraged to attend the Amazon Academy event, following a recent study by Rural England and Scotland’s Rural College, which showed that up to £1.9bn could be added to GVA (Gross Value Added) for the Welsh economy annually if more rural businesses adopted digital tools and services to grow their business.

Businesses interested in selling on Amazon can visit http://services.amazon.co.uk