Australian companies are increasingly looking for new markets for their products and services, with many turning to overseas regions and e-commerce, according to a recent study from PayPal.
The study found that the Australian companies are among the most likely to invest in connections with overseas businesses, with considerable growth in internet sales. In fact, Australian small businesses are poised to make $16.1 billion in overseas trade by 2018.
This represents a three-fold increase on the levels which small businesses are currently achieving in online sales to overseas markets.
Emma Hunt, director small business at PayPal Australia, suggested that these changes would represent a considerable shift in the way organisations do business in the future.
"Real and virtual barriers to trade are rapidly disappearing, helped by the growing use of the internet for commerce and enabling payment platforms," said Ms Hunt.
"These factors, combined with resource-rich economies entering the global online marketplace and Australia's reputation for producing quality goods and service, have all created unprecedented opportunity for our small businesses to expand into new markets, find new customers, and diversify their income streams."
While this growth is good news for companies, there is still an ongoing need for organisations to secure the right support for their overseas trade. Trade finance can be incredibly valuable, as it reduces the financial pressure that accompanies dealing with overseas orders.
Australia isn't the only country to experience a rapid growth in online sales to overseas buyers. The PayPal research situated Australia in a group of six countries that are all expecting significant growth in their online services. The others in this group were the US, UK, China, Germany and Brazil.
With such strong growth in overseas e-commerce, both within Australia and around the Asia-Pacific region, companies will need to be sure the have the right financing support to make the most of these changes.
Earlypay has supported Australian SMEs with fast and flexible alternative funding solutions for more than 20 years. Our invoice finance and asset finance products allow business owners to proactively manage their cash flow, freeing up their working capital for investing in growth. To chat about whether our solutions could be right for your business, please call us on 1300 760 205.