Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: This festive season, 70 per cent of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) retailers have stocked up Diwali related goods at least 40 per cent more than what they usually stock up during non-festive seasons, found a survey by a business to business (B2B) e-commerce marketplace Solv.
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Solv conducted a survey of MSME retailers across more than 300 Tier 1-6 cities in India to understand how small and medium retailers are gearing up for the festive season sales. The report doesn’t mention the number of respondents who participated in the survey.
In a major shift post pandemic, 83 per cent of the businesses now order at least 20-40 per cent of their stocks online via B2B marketplace platforms, as per the survey.
Earlier, retailers used to rely on offline sources for stock, but the pandemic offered a shift to online sources. Moreover, the remaining 17 per cent order as much as 60-80 percent of their stock online.
The findings also revealed that almost 50 per cent of the retailers find invoice financing more convenient. Invoice financing allows small traders to borrow working capital against unpaid invoices facilitating their cash flow. However, 43 per cent still prefer cash-on-delivery (COD) whereas only a small minority prefer card payments.
In the survey, 51 per cent of the retailers said their customers discovered their brand through social media. TV advertising, which was once the primary source of brand discovery, now accounts for only 17 per cent of it.
