More than two thirds - 69 per cent - of small businesses are facing inflationary pressures across all parts of their business, which is having an adverse effect on skills and training, according to new research from eBay UK.

The impacts are being felt on everything from their supply chains, to energy, to wages and rent according to the research.

The majority of those surveyed - 59 per cent - admitted their finances are stretched and almost half - 49 per cent - of those who needed to recover from COVID-19 said they were concerned their business wouldn’t do so fully.

Meanwhile, 47 per cent said that a lack of investment is preventing business growth, and over a third - 40 per cent - of those who needed to recover said that a lack of investment would force them to let people go.

The news comes as eBay is set to invest over £1 million to deliver a year-long support programme, visiting 12 cities and towns in the next 12 months, which it expects to reach thousands of small businesses by the end of March 2023.

“Thanks to the amazing resilience and adaptability of small business owners, most have successfully weathered the multiple challenges of covid, supply chain problems, and now the cost of living crisis,” said Murray Lambell, general manager at eBay UK. “eBay has a long heritage in supporting our army of 300,000 small business sellers in both the good times and the more challenging times, so we’re very proud to build on this by announcing this first ever national Business Roadshow, which we hope will make a meaningful difference for small businesses and entrepreneurs across the country, providing them with the skills, investment and network to thrive in the long-term.”

He added: “We want to open our community to even more businesses, so that whichever part of our British Isles you’re based in, you can find a way to harness the huge opportunities that our platform can give to both start-up entrepreneurs and established, highly-scaled online sellers alike”.

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