Scottish Enterprise unveils 200,000 jobs in Scotland come through e-commerce
The Scottish Enterprise has unveiled a report, created by SQW, looking into Scotland’s competitive position in relation to the adoption of e-commerce and to look at ways in which public sector support for e-commerce could be improved.
The report estimates 200,000 jobs coming from the sector in Scotland.
Scottish Enterprise says it ‘intends to increase focus on the e-commerce opportunity for Scotland and in particular, to focus on international e-commerce awareness, advice and support.’
INDEZ, a Scottish e-commerce agency, told The Drum: “This is a landmark report from Scottish Enterprise that in a no-nonsense way has got right to the heart of e-commerce. The report's conclusions recognise that e-commerce is the biggest thing in business today (worth between £8 and £31 billion to the Scottish economy this year) and employing around 200,000 people (that's around double the number employed in Scotland's oil and gas industry). Not only is it huge, it's growing in Scotland at around 11% - that's a lot faster than the growth rate of China and it's happening during what is close to a recession. The report confirms that whilst the UK is globally number one for e-commerce, Scotland is well behind, for example, England's South East.
“The report has identified those areas where weakness in the Scottish economy must be addressed. Skills and training is almost non existent (relative to the size and importance of the subject). The report also confirms that the public sector needs to improve its support with a fresh approach drawn from those that practice the subject on a daily basis and to clarify perceived confusion between offline and online trade. I also suspect that hearing a politician utter the word "e-commerce" could draw a gasp of surprise from the business community.”