According to this, more than 90% of e-commerce executives in Spain have declared they expect an increase in sales, with 51% saying sales would grow by up to 10% and 40% looking for an even bigger gain in 2014.

"According to data from Foro de Economía Digital and marketing agency Kanlli, only 3% of respondents expect sales to decline. While the number of digital buyers is growing all the time, healthier sales will also come from higher spending by existing buyers. The same research unveils that 57% believe their average order value would climb by more than 10% in 2014."

"Results also point out that strong sales prospects are encouraging higher marketing spend. Almost three-quarters of retail e-commerce executives in Spain have planned to raise their digital marketing budget in 2014. Of those, 37% have declared that the increase would be up to 10%, while 35% expect extra investment of more than 10%. One-quarter have mentioned they would maintain the same budget for digital marketing in 2014 and 3% are looking to cut back."

"Findings reveal that online merchants in Spain will increasingly cater for mobile shopping and buying. Only 53% of e-commerce representatives have stated that their websites are currently mobile-optimized, but all of the remaining 47% plan to adapt their websites. A further 4% already have a mobile application up and running."

"Research also identifies two key trends shaping the market: showrooming and multichannel sales. Most executives are looking for a rise in multichannel sales in 2014, with 71% saying these would increase. Of that group, 24% believe most sales involving multiple channels would be completed online. "

According to this, E-commerce spending increases nearly 17% in 2013, and 16% in the fourth quarter of last year, in the U.S. .

"Online shoppers in the United States spent $69.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, up 16.1% from approximately $59.6 billion for the fourth quarter of 2012, according to figures released today by the U.S. Commerce Department. Total retail sales, meanwhile, increased 3.8% year over year."

"E-commerce sales accounted for 6.0% of total retail sales in the fourth quarter, compared with 5.4% for the same period on 2012, according to the Commerce Department."

"For the full year 2013, e-commerce sales reached $262.51 billion, up 16.9% from the previous year, according to the department’s seasonally adjusted figures. By comparison, total retail sales increased 4.2% year over year in 2013."

"On an unadjusted basis, the Commerce Department says e-retail sales, excluding foodservice, during the fourth quarter totaled nearly $83.57 billion, up 16.0% from the same period a year ago. It says e-commerce accounted for approximately 7.0% of the quarter’s unadjusted total retail sales of $1.201 trillion. Following the same method outlined above, Internet Retailer calculates e-commerce accounted for 7.7% of unadjusted retail sales of items consumers often purchase online. "

According to this, the turnover of Chinese mobile payment industry reached 317.56% year-over-year to USD 1.59 trillion in 2013, while the number of orders reached 212.86% year-on-year (YOY) to 1.67 billion.

"According to the data released by Chinese central bank-People’s Bank of China, e-payment business recorded 25.78 billion orders and a turnover of CNY 1,075 trillion in 2013, up 27.40% and 29.46% respectively from a year earlier. E-payment includes three categories of payment services of online payment, phone payment and mobile payment. In addition to mobile payment, the turnover of online payment business climbed 28.89% YOY to CNY 1,061 trillion and that for phone payment declined 8.92% YOY to CNY 4.74 trillion in the same period."

"The report added that China recorded a turnover of CNY 1,608 trillion from 50.16 billion non-cash settlements last year, up 21.92% and 24.7%, respectively."

Since being established as a social enterprise in 2001 we have been proud to announce when we have made a profit. One of the big problems with working as a social enterprise is that if you tell people you want to make money, they think that you are demonic and that for some reason, wanting to make money negates your social values.

BUT to the contrary you need to make a profit to stay in business. If you want to help people and develop social programmes the only way to do this and be sustainable is to be good at the business side of what you do. How many organisations do we know that are great at working with people but who struggle to balance the books.

So with this in mind we did all the right things we registered for VAT, we have paid corporation tax on any profits we have made, we run PAYE schemes and pay Income Tax and NI. In my mind just like any normal business, so it came as a bit of a surprise to hear from HMRC VAT that we did not operate as a business because we received grants. Then came the big problem, because we were not a “real” business we could not reclaim the VAT on any money we had received as grants and with the letter came with a demand to pay back £12K in back VAT for the period 2008 to 2012

I am thinking hay what’s happened to the BIG Society? Small local companies and organisations taking over the running of the country? We argued the case for 2 years but (as you can guess) in the end after nearly going out of business to find the money, we paid the “debt” back to HMRC before we got taken to court.

So we have started to ask around if anyone else is in the same position? Please let me know if you have been subjected to a similar backdated claim.

UK goverment published a report titled "Beyond e-commerce to everywhere-commerce" describing technology impact on British e-commerce and plans for expanding the markets.

- Consumer spend fuelled by technology

"Trade is borderless. Wifi is everywhere. There is no time delay on money. Smart mobile device ownership is on the rise worldwide. The combination of technology and the services it enables is stimulating consumer activity as society spends more and more time online. Mobile devices have driven this change with sales of smartphones and tablets surpassing laptops and desktops in 2013. Activity on social media platforms reflects this transition to an “always-on” culture and for many brands mobile is the strategic growth channel amongst the range of channels they operate. There were a total of 6.3 billion global mobile subscriptions in 2012. For 2013 there were 6.8 billion. These days it is possible to reach customers in parts of the world a UK brand would not have had reach – total accessibility, global reach – the digital platform allows us to know our customers like never before."

- Consumer behaviour changed by technology

"If the effect of mobile has been rapid it is likely the next generation of wearable technology will be even more dramatic. Not only will it create another channel for retailers but it will rebalance the way consumers shop for brands. Google Glass and Samsung’s watch show how unobtrusive connected devices can become by going from separate objects to being integrated into everyday products. Mobile devices have already changed the way consumers shop, wearable technology will reinforce the ability of consumers to buy anywhere and do so when and how it suits them. When the consumer is “always on” and the market consists of multiple touch points for display and others for sell-though, the market is literally everywhere. The value of the wearable device market in 2013 was $2.5bn. It is expected to rise to $12.6bn by 2018."

- Consumer relationships with brands changed by technology

 "The days of just optimising full version sites are over and retailers are now going to have to find new levels of skill to optimise mobile as part of the customer journey. Tracking journeys across multiple devices and giving customers relevant content will be a new exciting challenge for brands. In future the relationship between consumer and retailer will change; the new entrant is the device maker. The device maker will own the primary relationship with the consumer because the retailer’s brand will be accessed through their screen. These changes go to the heart of how a company will present its brand in the future as the role of data grows in importance and retailers search for new ways to compete against the competition and to connect directly with their consumers."

- UKTI’s Global Digital Acceleration Plan

"The route to growth is through the screen. There are over 150 digital malls worldwide and they are a new breed of channel that delivers sales and marketing in one. This is made possible by the huge numbers of consumers who visit these platforms every day and the behavioural data that this traffic generates. UKTI is providing focused support to the retail sector in three areas:

• new and emerging e-commerce channels
• exploitation of the scale of digital marketing to maximise global presence
• optimisation of ongoing marketing activity to meet international consumer interest"

"Recommended partners for advice and services to companies for each step of the export process from trademark and URL registration, landed cost calculation, packaging, shipping, payment, VAT registration, marketing and related services."

- UKTI Retail Industry International Action Plan

"The UKTI Retail Industry International Action Plan aims to:

• deliver £500m value to the UK economy through assisting up to 1,000 businesses with their international growth in the two years to March 2015
• provide support for up to 600 retail sector SMEs to help with their international growth
• work with Business Ambassadors, the Catalyst programme and the International Trade Advisor Network to prepare the UK retail sector for international trade
• tailor UKTI support programmes and increase the uptake of these services to UK retailers seeking to internationalise their businesses
• increase the professionalism of the UKTI global network of support for the retail sector, including working with private sector providers to deliver information and advice."