E-commerce Driving India’s SME Growth; Projected to cross $80 billion by 2020 Says Study

The surge of e-commerce in India is driving the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which in turn is contributing to new job opportunities and GDP contribution, a recent study shows.

The study, titled ‘Impact of Ecommerce on SMEs in India‘ jointly conducted by domestic e-commerce player Snapdeal and market research firm KPMG, which also claimed that e-commerce sector in India is projected to cross $80 billion by 2020, examined the macro-impact of the sector on the growth of SMEs and identified remaining gaps in the ecosystem that needed to be plugged.

As per the report, 85% of SMEs who adopted e-commerce believe that it is a cost effective medium for sales growth. The study also claimed that SMEs who actively adopt the internet for business activities boast 51% higher revenues, which results in 49% more profit and a 7% broader consumer base than their offline counterparts.

The study also highlighted the importance of SMEs in the country which accounted for over 17% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014 and contributed to 45% of the nation’s industrial output and 40% of the total exports.

It also claimed that SMEs are capable of creating 1.3 million jobs per year.

“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,” Richard Rekhy, chief executive of KPMG India, said.

Source: http://indianbizparty.com/news/e-commerce-driving-indias-sme-growth-projected-to-cross-80-billion-by-2020-says-study/