Business services are the activities that assist a business, despite not delivering a tangible product. These include IT, warehousing, procurement and finance services.
The EU Internal Market is currently underdeveloped and a major part of it, the service sector, has significant untapped growth potential. In order to stimulate competitiveness, European policymakers have adopted a number of policies to remove legal barriers and improve productivity in the sector.
As with products, service businesses must be able to develop a brand name that will make customers want to use them. They also need to be able to differentiate their offering from those of their competitors. The more abstract, complex and perishable the service is, the greater the need for this brand differentiation, which can be difficult to attain and often requires a long development time.