AICES has joined the UK’s first E-Commerce Trade Commission, brought together by the Institute of Export & International Trade.

Other members of the Commission include Amazon, Alibaba Group, eBay, Google Shopify, the Federation of Small Business, and The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

The Commission will run for two years and will focus on encouraging small businesses to export. Its key focus areas will be:

• Simplification – Publish two evidence-based reports that include policy recommendations focused on addressing existing trade barriers, simplifying pathways to trade and incentivising small business participation in international ecommerce
• Perception – Monitor demand and supply side perceptions of the UK to international customers, regularly benchmarking and measuring British small businesses’ ability to conduct e-commerce trade through regular surveys
• Promotion – Reach 70,000 businesses by April 2025 through campaign events, educational content and case studies, to improve knowledge and understanding of where businesses can access the support they need.

Business and trade secretary, Kemi Badenoch, welcomed the Commission’s launch, pointing to the government’s ambition for UK exports to reach £1trn by 2030. She explained that helping more UK SMEs to trade digitally will be critical to achieving that goal:

“The UK is home to the most advanced ecommerce market in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. Our new e-commerce and trade commission is going to build on that position and bring government and business together identifying clear and deliverable changes to boost UK ecommerce trade.

“Often people think of ecommerce as just the B2C, but actually B2B is six times larger, which underlines the potential for ecommerce.”

For more information about the Commission and the launch event please click here.