How SMBs Around the World Prefer to Buy

June 18, 2026

We recently surveyed 800 small and midsize business (SMB) decision makers in the U.S., UK, Germany, and India to find the channels they prefer to use to buy products and services in five key categories. The takeaway: SMBs vastly prefer to buy digitally (online or via an app), as opposed to in a store or branch, over the phone, or by email. Interesting differences emerge at the country level.

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‍Highlights

  • In most cases, SMBs prefer to buy online. More than half of US and UK SMBs, and the plurality of German SMBs, prefer to buy every category online. In India, half or more prefer to buy all but two categories online, employee benefits and tech hardware. UK SMBs are more likely to buy online than their peers.
  • In-store or branch (aka brick-and-mortar) is generally the second most popular purchase channel, depending on the category and country. In every country, tech hardware has the highest brick-and-mortar purchase preference. In general, Indian SMBs are more likely to purchase in a store or branch than their counterparts.
  • A surprising number of SMBs prefer purchasing by phone. In the US, UK and Germany, the category with the highest phone purchase preference is employee benefits. In India, it’s payment/POS solutions. German SMBs are more likely to buy by phone than their peers.
  • In-app purchasing varies more by category than by country. For example, 4% of UK SMBs prefer to buy office productivity suites by phone, compared to the 16% who prefer to buy employee benefits by phone.
  • Email purchasing preference is low; no more than single digits in any category in any country.

Country-specific data

‍U.S. SMB purchase preferences

UK SMB purchase preferences

German SMB purchase preferences

Indian SMB purchase preferences

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