Confidence up for online businesses

Ebay have just published the findings from their latest Online Business Index here.

The Autumn index has analysed the views of 508 online businesses and found that 69% of online businesses expect sales to rise over the next three months and 77% expect to be able to improve their profit margins. One of the stand out facts of the 'new economy' is that 79% of traditional 'bricks and mortar' businesses that have an online presence believe the ability to sell online has made their business model more sustainable and therefore instrumental in allowing them to survive the recession and be in a strong position to take advantage of any upturn.

From a political standpoint, and with a general election not far off, it is interesting to note the overwhelming support for a conservative victory with 67% of online businesses believing that David Cameron's team have the best poilicies to support small and medium sized businesses while only 18% supported Gordon Brown and Labour. Despite the high profile of Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats were only supported by 4% of those polled.