Online sales in the UK will exceed physical store sales by 2026

USwitch reports that while physical retail stores have experienced reduced sales because of the depressed economic conditions, internet sales results continue to increase and will be more than 50% of all retails sales by 2026.

Physical retail stores had a 3.9% reduction in sales in June, which is the greatest monthly reduction since 1986.

USwitch says online sales will increase to £163 billion a year by 2020 - a 44% share of the total retail market.

The reduction in the cost of broadband access, the increase in internet speed, and high petrol prices, mean that UK consumers now spend 1.6 hours a week shopping online.

15 million UK households now have broadband connections, and UK online sales in 2007 were 40% higher than Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

This trend means that our UK Business Directory for Local Search is proving very popular. It has over 2.2 million pages indexed on Google and there is no cost for the 1.6 million businesses involved to be listed.

UK small businesses are being restricted in getting awarded contracts for the 2012 London Olympics

The Forum of Private Business reports that the UK Government’s target of awarding 30% of all public contracts to small businesses is under threat because of recent Government proposals.

Government plans require businesses to enforce gender and racial equality standards, and to offer trade union membership to their employees, for companies to be eligible for contracts, and this disadvantages small businesses dramatically.

In the 2008 Budget, the UK Government said it wanted small businesses to get 30 per cent of public contracts, but then announced companies had to promote trade union membership to be awarded contracts.

This inherent contradiction creates a substantial barrier for small UK businesses to share in the large amount of revenue that the 2012 London Olympics public contracts will provide.

Small businesses are under stress due to the current economic slowdown and this is another example of the difficulty of competing with larger companies.

Our UK Business Directory, which contains of 1.6 million businesses, most of which are small businesses, is assisting, by providing qualified prospects to them with no cost for the businesses that are listed.

Small UK businesses are at a disadvantage

New research from BT Business and Cisco shows that half of private sector businesses think that small companies are less competitive than larger businesses, and in addition, the larger companies are now more demanding of their suppliers.

While 87% of private businesses said that they had better personal relationships with small companies, 52% said the small businesses were not as price competitive as large companies.

40% said they were less likely to choose a small business in difficult economic times.

Of the £28 million each year paid to suppliers, 23%, £6.6 million, is spent with small businesses, however the period for payment terms have been increased by half of the firms placing these orders.

Given these facts, UK small businesses must play to their strengths and bond with their clients by providing excellent service and also they must acquire new clients economically.

Getting found is an essential aspect of success for small businesses that invariably have a limited advertising budget. Our UK Local Search Business Directory assists over 1.6 million businesses, the majority of which are small, since the service is 100% free for their listing.

Online security flaws in UK Small Businesses

Symantec Corp reports basic online security flaws in UK and European small businesses, in spite of the fact that the companies appear to be aware of the problems.

25% of UK small businesses have had a recent online security breach which resulted in a loss of business and 13% incurred a financial loss. In Europe the figures were 17% and 8%.

UK small businesses have 47% of total UK employees and 37% of total UK turnover, so this is an issue of importance.

43% of those surveyed thought that online security was the sole responsibility of the IT Manager and 34% thought the Managing Director solely responsible.

Only 41% of UK small businesses use an outsourced IT specialist company to provide online security.

31% of those surveyed said mistakes by employees caused the system to crash or information to be lost and 13% said this had a negative financial effect.

42 percent update their business IT security daily, 15 % weekly, 6% monthly, and 3% yearly.

Online security is a now major concern for UK small businesses and spam email is probably the most annoying aspect of this and a regular entry point of viruses infected emails.

Our UK Search Business Directory, which has 1.6 million free business listings, has a spam proof email listing for businesses, so that their email addresses can’t be scraped and then spammed.

The £300m a year saving that is possible for UK small businesses with improved Government support on health and safety

Better Regulation Executive reports that UK small businesses could save £300m a year with better Government support on health and safety.

The average UK business spends 20 hours a year, £350, on administration, meeting health and safety requirements. Reducing the time spent by five hours for each company would save low risk businesses £150 million a year.

The UK has one of the best workplace safety records in the world, with fatalities and injuries falling by more than 70 per cent over the last three decades.

Cutting the amount of paperwork for low risk businesses, and making complex regulations easier to understand, help create safer environments for workers and the public.

1500 health and safety consultancy firms in the UK, provide important services and support, increasingly to small businesses, however, low risk businesses could save up to £140 million a year if 20 per cent turned to government sources for support on health and safety.

Reducing costs for UK small businesses is important in the current tight economic climate and our UK Business Directory assists by providing 100% free listing for over 1.6 million businesses, most of which are small businesses.

The UK authorities give approval for Google Street View

The British Information Commissioner's Office has approved the use of Google's Street View software in the UK.

The tool is an add-on to Google Maps and Google Earth that offers photographs of streets and cities.

Google has overcome privacy concerns by blurring the faces of people and licence plates in the photos and the use of image removal tools.

Google was unable to advise when Street View would be available.

Our Local Search Business Directory now provides Google maps and will also provide Google Street View as soon as it is available, for the 1.6 million businesses listed, and there will still be no cost for the businesses to be listed.

Tax Credits for UK small businesses will increase from 1 August 2008

The UK Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury announced that tax credits for small businesses who invest in research and development will increase by £80 million a year from 1 August 2008.

This will increase the tax relief in this field for small businesses to £300 million a year.

The tax credit rate available for small businesses spending on research and development will increase to 175% of their investment.

The definition of a small business for this tax credit is up to 500 employees, an increase from 250 employees, with a doubling from the previous level of their revenue and balance sheet valuation.

The tax credits were started in 2000 for small businesses and extended to include large companies in 2002.

The UK government’s goal is to have research and development investment at 2 ½% of Gross Domestic Product in 2014.

This is an additional benefit for UK small businesses who are finding trading conditions difficult in the current depressed economic environment.

We are also assisting by providing our UK Directory for Local Search, which has over 1.6 million UK business listings, mostly small businesses, and over 2.5 million pages indexed on Google UK, with no cost for the businesses.