A lot of businesses who traded with the contininet now have trade barriers in place that mean they can't compete and sometimes can't get stuff through customs.
Yep.
I live in Belgium. I actually used to rather regularly order stuff online from the UK. Sometimes because it was cheaper, other times because of exclusivity.
As time went on since Brexit, I can tell you that that has come to a full stop.
It's just no longer interesting to do so. It's become more expensive AND shipping takes longer.
So my euro's no longer find their way to UK companies.
And I know a lot of people in the same boat.
It's simply no longer in our best interest to buy there. We have no incentive anymore.
To much of a bother and / or too expensive.
The other day we were shopping for holiday cards to send out come Christmas time. Out of habit, we just use search engines and end up where we end up. We found some cool cards and decided to order, only to find out it was in the UK. It automatically was cast aside and not considered an option. We had too many bad experiences already.
So we just settled on another card from a German webshop.
These are little things, but it's very telling.
These aren't ideological decisions we are making.
Not buying online from China - THAT is an ideological decision on my part.
The UK? Nope. I no longer buy there for the same reason I don't buy from the US. Too much hassle. Too expensive to ship / import. Simply no longer worth it.
It's a shame. But it is what it is. I didn't choose for it to be so.