Half of UK businesses increasing e-commerce spend in 2005
E-commerce investment confirmed as a continuing business
priority
Press release: 17/08/2005
New research has revealed that e-commerce investment in the UK
is still increasing, five years on from the dot.com boom and
bust.
A survey, conducted by OUT-LAW.com, the IT and e-commerce
service from international law firm Pinsent Masons, found that only
2 per cent of UK businesses have decreased their e-commerce
investment this year, while nearly half (43 per cent) are
increasing or significantly increasing their annual e-commerce
spend.
Budget limitations have been identified as the number one
barrier to improving e-commerce strategy, with 47% of respondents
stating that inadequate budget is hindering their web
presence, while 55% claim that other business priorities are
barriers to their organisation’s e-commerce development.
Legislation has also been identified as a major barrier to
e-commerce development, with nearly one in five organisations
identifying legal constraints as the biggest barrier. Of
those that claim legislation is the number one barrier, the Data
Protection Act ranks first, financial services legislation second,
while 14% claim accessibility laws hamper their e-commerce
strategy.
From a legal viewpoint the survey also discovered that 16% of
organisations believe that the EU regulatory framework has had no
impact on improving customer confidence in e-commerce; 45% agree
that it has met these objectives to an extent; and just 3% think it
has actually hindered consumer confidence. 69% of those surveyed
are confident or highly-confident that their organisation is
complying with the e-commerce regulatory framework, while almost
one in three are currently unsure if they are compliant.
The survey also found that e-commerce is firmly established
within British business, with 35% of companies claiming that their
initial e-commerce development began between five and ten years
ago. In terms of investment, security was identified as the
top priority, followed by CRM, storage, e-commerce, mobile
computing and outsourced services.
Struan Robertson, editor of OUT-LAW and a Senior Associate with
Pinsent Masons, comments:
“Most of the laws on e-commerce are about
giving plenty of information to customers. When companies build
compliance into their e-commerce strategies, it can be easy to get
this right. When it's an afterthought, some things, particularly
data protection, become more difficult."
Pinsent Masons offers a service called OUT-LAW Compliance that
provides a legal appraisal of any website (whether it is doing
e-commerce or not) for a fixed price. See: http://www.out-law.com/page-308
For further information please contact:
Richard Leonard
Brazil
Richard@agencybrazil.com
T: 01865 725 269
Struan Roberson
OUT-LAW
Struan.robertson@OUT-LAW.com
T: 0141 249 5422
Notes to Editors
The OUT-LAW survey was carried out in July 2005, questioning 477
UK senior professionals within UK businesses.
OUT-LAW is an award-winning technology and e-commerce support
service, run by law firm Pinsent Masons, one of the most highly
regarded law firms specialising in technology, telecoms,
outsourcing and information law.
OUT-LAW is a free service which includes a quarterly magazine, a
weekly e-mail news bulletin and the out-law.com website, offering
free information and checklists to help businesses. With more
than 20,000 subscribers and 5,000 pages of content, OUT-LAW.COM is
believed to be one of the largest and most popular law firm
websites in the world.
For further information, please visit Pinsent Masons’ websites:
http://www.pinsentmasons.com/
or http://www.out-law.com/
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