eBay UK has published the 1-year anniversary edition of its Online Business Index, which has tracked the attitudes and performance of 700+ businesses over the past 12 months. According to the Index, concerns about consumer demand remain high at 45%, which is 2% lower than last year, and 55% of respondents said that supply costs continued to act as a barrier to growth, up 5% from last year. Other findings include:

• 70% of online firms tracked met their sales targets over the past year;
• 2% said their sales were below their targets;
• 65% said they were confident about the outlook for their businesses over the next 3 months;
• the number of firms expressing fear about the future has dropped 6% to 9%;
• 57% of businesses have raised their overall sales targets for the year ahead.

eBay UK said the number of firms struggling with access to finance has halved, and fears of inflation have eased over the past year: two-thirds of online firms expect prices to remain stable, up 12% from last year. The number of firms expecting prices to rise has fallen by 10% despite inflation rising in the economy overall.

The survey was conducted by FreshMinds using seller information provided by eBay. Survey fieldwork was carried out online between January 8 - 25, 2010; 705 businesses responded to the latest survey.