Only 2% of micro-businesses in the UK use a mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) to accept payments.

"According to a recent report, the number one barrier to business growth is cash flow. mPOS solutions enable businesses to accept a card payment using a smartphone instead of a traditional fixed point-of-sale terminal."

"The research reveals that 45% of micro-businesses identify cash flow as the number one barrier to growth. In addition, 48% of micro-businesses surveyed miss sales or face delayed settlement, with one in ten saying they miss sales because they don’t have the required payment capability. And more than half of respondents believe multi-channel payments will be important in the future."

"19% believe mPOS will help with cash flow and 17% expect it to remove payment issues. An encouraging 38% of respondents say they will adopt mPOS in the near future as long as their concerns are addressed. Given mPOS is a relatively new technology and micro-businesses are typically hard to reach, it is surprising that 47% of respondents correctly identified the actual definition of an mPOS."

"Just 2% of respondents currently use mPOS technology. One major reason is that current mPOS and POS offerings are too slow to settle payments and help businesses’ improve cash flow. The majority of existing mPOS services takes between 7-10 days to settle payments."

"The research also reveals that mPOS security (56%) and connectivity (29%) are major concerns among micro-businesses."

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Cross-border and digital expansion, followed by product diversification, are the main objectives on businesses' agenda in Q3 2014.

"The analysis, which includes 10,000 firms across 145 countries, reveals that almost 40% of businesses are seeking to reach new geographic markets or expand their online presence, instead of keeping their focus on customers in existing markets."

"Nearly 12.5% of businesses are focused on finding partners who could help them diversify their product range and application, while over 10% of businesses are actively seeking a partner to help them raise capital. The quest for partners that can assist online expansion reflects the rapid increase of the online B2B market, which at USD 559 billion was estimated to be around twice the size of online B2C sales in 2013, according to Forrester Research data. Equally, the search for partners to support cross-border expansion reflects the opportunity that remains off-shore, particularly in developing economies, and the recognition that such a goal often requires on the ground support, the report indicates."

More info here.

Here are the preliminary results of the survey on Black Pete.

The preliminary results of the survey on Black Pete - Ezzev Foundation

Here are good practices and bibliography on the Black Pete discussion.

Good practices and bibliography

US citizens think that social media does not have any influence on their online purchasing decisions.

"62% of US citizens claim that Facebook and Twitter, among other sites, do not affect their decisions to purchase products."

"On the other hand, only 5% argue that social media have a high degree of impact upon their purchasing decisions, while another 30% admit that social media channels may contribute to their online acquisition decisions."

"Millennials, a social media audience type considered key by a number of companies, admit that social media marketing strategies bear little impact upon their online purchasing habits. Among the 4 major generation groups surveyed by the report in question, millennials (those born after 1980) were the most likely to say that social media have at least some influence on their buying decisions (50%). But millennials were nearly as likely to say social media channels have no influence at all."

"Among consumers who follow a company on Facebook or Twitter, 34% say that social media have no influence at all on their buying decisions, while 53% say they have some influence."

"Despite the findings of the report, US companies spent a combined USD 5.1 billion on social media advertising in 2013."

More info here.