This week the “Deliver in Europe” platform is being launched at the Deliver One conference in Luxembourg.
A year long initiative, the aim of the new platform is to open up delivery companies operating across the EU to SME businesses as part the the EU Commissions aims for a greater digital economy.
SMEs will be able to access and compare all the different delivery solutions available – according to the blurb this will involve about 250,000 pieces of information on 1,000 suppliers in 28 countries. The Deliver in Europe platform will also give SMEs effective tools intended to significantly improve their bargaining power.
EASME, the EU Commission Executive Agency for SMEs, says that “The platform would hence act as an information hub and powerful toolbox for e-retailers wishing to fulfil shipments across Europe and is committed to be a game changer giving SME e-retailers a level-playing field to compete more effectively in the market“.
Having seen many high falutin projects (both British government and EU) designed to make life easier for SMEs, it generally turns out that they’re actually designed for quite large businesses. The EU defines an SME as having up to 250 employees and an annual turnover below €50million. That’s quite large compared to most traders operating on eBay and Amazon.
You’ll have to forgive me if I’m not falling over with joy at the thought of being able to compare carrier rates and service across the EU. Whilst it’s a laudable aim, the chances are you’ll be stuck with your normal UK carriers as you simply won’t have the scale to access EU competitors.
I hope I’m wrong and the “Deliver in Europe” platform is something to get excited about. What the platform might do is to encourage more EU delivery companies to actively tout for business in the UK. That could make their services accessible to even the smallest of SMEs opening up some real competition in the delivery space and that would be something worth shouting about.
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How does this work post-Brexit?