From micro-businesses through to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), companies employing fewer than 250 people are the backbone of the UK economy, making up over 99 per cent of all UK businesses and providing 60 per cent of UK private sector employment. Their confidence, future growth, and ability to harness the power of the internet and technology are all significant indicators of Britain’s quality of life and ability to compete on the global economic stage.

That is why Enterprise Nation and Amazon UK commissioned Capital Economics to create the SME Growth Tracker. As an independent, in-depth piece of research based on extensive YouGov polling of over 1,000 SMEs in Britain, the report seeks to examine SME sentiment on key issues relating to the overall economy, the export environment and the UK’s digital economy. We hope that it provides helpful insight on how this critical segment of our economy is performing, and raises awareness of SME views across Britain.

Some of the main findings from the report include:

  1. SMEs using e-commerce and exporting forecast the strongest growth in the coming year
  2. SMEs overall expect accelerating revenue growth in the year ahead
  3. SMEs say it’s largely business as usual since the Brexit vote, though nearly 1 in 4 have put off some business plans

At Amazon, we strive to support all businesses – large and small – in achieving success. SMEs play a big role in helping us to serve our millions of customers, and through the ability to sell on Amazon, use Amazon Payments and Amazon Web Services, we empower hundreds of thousands of businesses across the UK.

The full report is available here, along with the infographic.