Analysts have assessed the survival rate of small and medium-sized businesses

Retail trade as a whole remains a high—risk industry, the reasons being low profitability and high competition. The survival rate of small retail formats is significantly lower than the "background" survival rate of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the regions as a whole (by 30-50%). This conclusion was reached by analysts at the Institute for the Development of Entrepreneurship and Economics, who conducted a study on the impact of large retail chains on the survival of small and medium-sized businesses.

The study notes that non-chain food trade, competing with large-scale retail, is not disappearing, but it is being transformed. The growth of competition leads to the flow of small businesses from universal trade to specialized trade, analysts say.

"Online commerce is characterized by an explosive growth in the number of SMEs. The number of annually "born" SME players increased 2-3 times in 2021-2024. The vast majority of them are sellers and owners of PVZ on marketplaces, as well as independent online stores," the authors of the study conclude.

At the same time, they note that the mortality rate of SMEs in the field of online commerce is growing at a faster pace.

"The number of market players liquidated annually increased to 11 times in 2021-2024. The average survival rate for 2021-2024 in this industry decreased by 3.4 times, and in individual regions — by 4-6 times," the study says.

As explained to Izvestia in the press service of the Institute for the Development of Entrepreneurship and Economics, the key factors that increase the birth rate of SMEs are, among others, the growth of consumer demand, an increase in household incomes, government programs to support SMEs in certain industries, and scaling up the institution of tax holidays.

The opposite factors were called a high key rate, lack of government support in certain industries, shortage of personnel, and high competition for the online trading segment due to an oversaturated market and an imperfect regulatory system.

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Why is the shortage of personnel and rising costs much more strongly affecting the activities of enterprises?

Earlier, on September 10, Andrei Glushkin, a member of the Council of the MRO Delovaya Rossiya, told Izvestia that from October 1, a new tool for supporting small and medium—sized businesses, as well as the self-employed, begins to operate in Russia - credit holidays. According to federal law, entrepreneurs will be able to temporarily suspend loan payments for up to six months.

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