Business, Express, Freight News


Small firms hope for a merr-E Xmas

[ November 25, 2025   //   ]

A poll of 1,200 smaller business by Federal Express suggests that almost a third (31%) of UK companies expect sales to be significantly better than last year, and a further (48%) predicting they will be slightly better.

. Businesses in Turkey (95%), Poland (87%), and the Netherlands (85%) emerged as the nations with the strongest hopes for the holiday season. Italy (66%), Spain (78%) and Germany (76%) were the least optimistic.

On average, UK SMEs predicted that over a third (38%) of their holiday sales would come from regions outside Europe, demonstrating positive demand for European goods. The top five regions with which the UK’s internationally trading SMEs reported doing business are revealed as the US (72%), other European countries (68%), the Middle East (43%), Africa (29%), Latin America and the Caribbean (25%) and Asia-Pacific countries (20%). 

The research also shows that the majority of UK SMEs polled (88%) see e-commerce shopping festivals, such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Singles’ Day, as important to their sales. Just under half (49%) see such festivals as very important, with over a further third (39%) seeing them as somewhat important.

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