European SMEs: Selling & Financial Health Report 2025

European SMEs: Selling & Financial Health 2025 is based on a survey of over 400 SMEs from across 8 EU countries and the UK to uncover how SME leaders view issues around B2B trade, particularly selling, and accompanying financial service support needs.

Why have we conducted the survey and put this report together? As we strive to discover trends and insights that provide focus for our trade innovation activities, it’s important for AREA42 to investigate and stay up-to-date on the complex and challenging context in which B2B-focused European SMEs do business. We believe releasing some of the survey’s findings to the public serves to start conversations and raise questions around the report’s topic scope.

In this selling & financial health report you’ll learn about:

• How SMEs approach payment after delivery and reliability checks
• What levels of confidence they have in those reliability checks
• What triggers SMEs to use – or not use – information and/or insurance agencies
• Actions and techniques used to mitigate risks around payments
• To what extent SMEs find being financially healthy a challenge
• And, even what transaction value is make or break for them!

It’s not just survey results, charts and verbatims! The report features spotlight commentaries AREA42 experts: Lode Vermeersch (Head of AREA42), Jessica Nemeth (Product Expert), Jacques Bolzer (Head of Operations), Afonso Rebelo De Sousa (Innovation Lead), and Matej Urban (Data and Risk Manager).