SME’s spending more on tech services

A recent report into the spending behaviour of more than 133,000 small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) in the UK over the past 10 years has just been published and makes interesting reading.

We’ll take a look at some of the pertinent points from the comprehensive report now. The global report actually covered a total of 250,000 SME’s across the UK, US, Canada, France and Australia with a total spend of £126 billion but we’ll focus on the domestic statistics.

“The Battle for Business Wallets” is a review undertaken by digital bookkeeping platform Receipt Bank and shows SME’s in the UK are more likely to spend money on businesses providing bespoke, technology focussed services.

Data taken from more than 54 million transactions in the UK last year indicates how SME’s spending was affected by the inescapable Brexit negotiations and elections in what was a turbulent year.

SME spending per transaction hit a low of £625 in August before climbing in October. Even with such a volatile economy SME’s in the UK spent an average of just under £250,000 in 2019 which was higher than most of the SME’s analysed in the other countries.

Analysis from the spending behaviour of hundreds of thousands of SME customers in the UK indicates that:

• SME’s spend more than £23,000 per annum on digital services form LinkedIn, Google and Facebook.
• Growth in SME transactions with the relatively new Metro Bank has outperformed the traditional high street institutions, with Fintech Revolut’s growth exceeding that of Lloyds, NatWest and HSBC.
• SME’s that have Amazon accounts increased their annual spend to an average of just under £2,500.
• During the past four years SME’s have doubled their spend with WeWork office space.

These key findings illustrate that the way SME’s carry out business in the UK is changing.

Adrian Blair, CEO of Receipt Bank said: “We produced this report to give British SMEs greater visibility over where businesses like theirs are spending their money.

“Clear insight into spending and finances is something small British businesses are only getting with companies that have digital services at their heart.

“The fast growth of providers like Metrobank, Revolut, who have led the digital frontier in their sectors, is testament to this.

“SMEs want faster, effective and predominantly digital services, making their lives easier and helping them get on with their day to day activities.

“They should be provided with the latest tech, so that way they can manage their finances better, particularly at times of economic volatility, as we saw occur in 2019.”

Reading Blair’s comments you can fully understand that even in this modern digital era the old adage that time is money still applies and speed of use and convenience is paramount.

Blair continues: “Small British businesses are processing tens of billions of pounds of spending through Receipt Bank each year, giving us a good sense of how they are faring in the economy and confidence in their future. We are uniquely placed to give visibility online item spend data – which will become increasingly useful to SMEs as they digitise their operations.”

The figures quoted are significant, especially considering the economic uncertainty of the past few years. With a more stable economic outlook ahead, the amount of money spent, and the number of SME’s investing in technology focussed services will surely continue to escalate.

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