SMEs believe growth in e-commerce to continue: FedEx

BENGALURU: A recent survey by global transportation major FedEx shows a sense of optimism among Indian businesses with 30 per cent of small businesses and 40 per cent of medium businesses seeing a rise in e-commerce sales since lockdowns began.

The pandemic and its resulting restrictions have led to a shift in consumer behaviour towards e-commerce with 35 per cent of small businesses and 54 per cent of medium businesses surveyed believing that e-commerce sales will improve their financial growth following COVID-19.

The FedEx-commissioned survey was conducted by the independent research firm Dun & Bradstreet India. It carried out in-depth interviews with the senior executives of 120 small and medium businesses across 18 Indian cities between September and November.

During this festive season, SMEs are enhancing their ecommerce capabilities and rethinking their online shopping strategies in anticipation of significant sales. Nearly 34 per cent of surveyed SMEs expect strong peak season demand.

This matches the findings published by Redseer which stated that peak season sales in India are expected to almost double

SMEs are enhancing their e-commerce capabilities and rethinking their online shopping strategies in anticipation of significant sales

this year, reaching 7 billion dollars in gross merchandise value compared to 3.8 billion dollars in the same period last year.

With the expected continued rise in e-commerce sales, 80 per cent of medium and 58 per cent of small businesses in the survey also believe that increased buying behaviour on e-commerce platforms will continue following the pandemic.

SMEs are also embracing digital solutions with 76 per cent of small businesses and 60 per cent of medium businesses stating that they are seeing a rise in digital payments received since the start of the pandemic.

Digital wallets are also seeing greater adoption with higher rates among small businesses (28 per cent) than medium businesses (7 per cent).