Industry News
ArtSystems appoints new supplies account manager
A
rtSystems, the Nottingham- based specialist systems distributor and service
provider, is delighted to announce that Zac Ambler has been promoted to the role of supplies account manager.
Ambler already has 18 months experience within the ArtSystems’ Sales Administration Team and is familiar with the company’s products and reseller customers. His appointment will take the specialist wide format supplies team to a total of seven people.
This increase in the supplies team reflects the ongoing growth of the business and the need for specialist sales account managers. These are key roles as they ensure ArtSystems’ resellers source the right solutions for their customers to
meet the demands of specific applications and requirements.
On Zac’s promotion, Tom Goddard, supplies division manager at ArtSystems, said: “I’ve no doubt whatsoever that Zac will continue to excel as he has done in his
previous role within ArtSystems. “He is a great colleague and is highly respected amongst our customers for the help he has given them in his sales admin role. His passion and enthusiasm will be a great asset in his new position.”
Call for reform to protect and promote small businesses in online marketplaces
F
SB is setting out a range of proposals to protect and promote small business owners who use online sales platforms, to ensure that small firms can make the most of the opportunities of trading online. FSB’s new publication, Net Benefits? Small business use of online platforms, looks into the terms and conditions that small businesses have to work under when using e-commerce sites, and unearths areas of concern, from reports of late payments to fake or malicious reviews which may compromise small businesses who engage with these platforms.
Online platforms are a crucial, growing route to market for thousands of small businesses in this digital age. The research found that over half of small firms (53%) who participated in the research currently use an online platform as part of their business, while just 3% of participants stopped using a platform within the previous 12 months. Seven in ten active small business users of platforms surveyed (71%) said they were ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to their business. Three in ten (29%) of those surveyed that are
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
currently using platforms utilise them to trade internationally.
However, while there are undoubtedly benefits to offering goods and services on platforms owned by large companies, there are potential downsides, too, as identified from the firms surveyed.
Two in five (39%) of the small businesses who participated in the research who had an issue with a platform said it was ‘difficult’ or ‘very difficult’ to resolve that issue, while one in six small businesses who reported issues with platforms (16%) said they were resolved ‘very unfairly’. Fake or malicious reviews were another problem reported by a significant minority of users of e-commerce sites in the research. One in eight small businesses surveyed (12%) who have used a platform in the last 12 months reported malicious or fake reviews, pointing to the need for more to be done to ensure the integrity and honesty of online reviews. Other issues queried by the research included how useful the sales data provided by online platforms was to small business users, with results
varying by platform. Some of the small firms that participated in the research reported that their products had been de-ranked (i.e. made less visible in search results, hitting sales) after a platform launched its own competing product, or delisted altogether. Intellectual property infringement was another area of concern, with numerous small businesses saying they had experienced a breach of their rights in this area, including the copying of designs and products (20% of those surveyed using Amazon, 12% of those surveyed using eBay and 8% of those surveyed using Instagram and Facebook Marketplace).
The withholding of funds due to small businesses by online platforms has recently hit the news, with both Etsy and Amazon having been found to have changed how they handle reserves, meaning some small businesses on those platforms have had to wait for over a month to be paid. One in six (16%) of small business users of Amazon in FSB’s research said that it took more than a month to receive their money, potentially causing issues with their cashflow.
November 2023 | 13 |
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
