'E-commerce powering India's SME sector's growth'

07 Oct '15

3 min read

Eight five per cent of the SMEs who adopted e-commerce believe that it is a cost effective medium to grow sales while SMEs using internet for business saw 51 per cent higher revenues and 49 per cent more profit, according to a joint study by e-commerce major Snapdeal and KPMG.

Titled 'Impact of Ecommerce on SMEs in India', the study examines the macro-impact of e-commerce sector on growth of SMEs in India and identifies remaining gaps in the eco system needed to be plugged to facilitate adoption of e-commerce by SMEs.

The report compares the e-commerce led growth trajectory of SMEs in India vis-à-vis other emerging and developed economies. Additionally, it outlines different roles that various participants like the government, industry bodies and e-commerce companies themselves can play in making the SME ecosystem more robust.

According to the study, 73 per cent SMEs felt that e-commerce enables them to understand their markets better while 46 per cent SMEs reported increase in business through listings on online marketplaces. E-commerce enabled SMEs reported 60 pe cent to 80 per cent reduction in distribution, marketing and sales spend to get incremental business.

Speaking at the release of the report, Kunal Bahl, Co-founder and CEO, Snapdeal said, “At Snapdeal, we are working towards building the most impactful digital commerce ecosystem in the country and SMEs form the foundation of this ecosystem in many ways. With over 200,000 sellers operating on our platform, we felt the need to conduct a systematic unbiased study to identify opportunities and challenges to further accelerate the growth of the sector. We have taken a number of initiatives like seller training programs, seller financing programme - Capital Assist and Snapdeal Seller Advisor Program, with an aim of creating life changing experiences for over one million sellers in the next three years. This study has given us deeper insights into what more we can do to enable small businesses become more successful online.”

Richard Rekhy, CEO, KPMG India said, “The fast paced growth of the e-commerce industry in India represents an unprecedented opportunity for SMEs. We hope that the findings of this report will assist policymakers, industry bodies and e-commerce companies to strengthen the support ecosystem, which enables SMEs to ride the e-commerce growth wave successfully”

This report is the first in a series of initiatives that Snapdeal has undertaken for creating an ecosystem for MSMEs and leveraging ecommerce for their growth, the e-commerce player said. (SH)

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