Over the past two decades, online shopping has packed a punch, striking towns and cities across the UK hard, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic since March 2020.
Domestically, the rising cost of living affecting us all already has had an inevitable knock-on effect for the feasibility and viability of small businesses. Several economic initiatives from the government, including Covid-related packages of support or tax cuts, have attempted to act as a pragmatic shield to the United Kingdom’s 5.5 million-plus small businesses.
While these provided some level of comfort; it is not enough. We must look to the question of what can be done to enable small businesses to flourish, and the increasingly enterprising higher education sector is uniquely placed to make a difference.
