Business subscriptions to be cut by UK SMEs

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55% of UK SMEs that subscribe to a service to help manage their business say that they would be lost without them. On average UK SMEs spend £183 a month on business subscriptions however, nearly half (49%) say rising costs are forcing them to consider reducing the number of services they subscribe to.

Four in five say that subscription services save their business time by delivering products and services they need regularly, without having to place repeat orders. A similar number say their business subscriptions give them a feeling of security because they know things that are important to their business are taken care of.

Business subscriptions include products and services and packages that help run the business which repeat regularly, such as subscription boxes or software/content access models ranging from card readers, appointment systems, accounting software, email automation software, staff management software, inventory management software, sales reporting software, CRM software.

In the ecommerce world, perhaps the most common subscription service is multi-channel management software and while many would be simply unable to run their business without such a service, we may see some shopping around in the coming months as users seek alternatives that better fit their budget, even if that means using a solution that isn’t as feature rich as their current solution.

In some cases, you may be able to downgrade to a freemium offering with fewer features than to carry on paying for a fully supported services – for instance do you need a paid for email service or could you use a free version?

Barclaycard Payments, who conducted the research, are launching their Smartpay Touch payment terminal (a £29 plus VAT monthly subscription!) providing all-in-one access to payments with a range of business management software included. They are also offering also offering small businesses that bank with them, or have a Barclaycard business product, a free subscription to FreshBooks accounting software, to help them manage their finances.

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