The COVID-19 Crisis – A Global Pandemic

Since the later part of 2019, the world has gone into a shell owing to the outbreak of Coronavirus disease. Declared a pandemic, the virus has affected Businesses across the globe as country after country has gone into lockdown and the end-user remaining indoors for months now. Businesses, especially SMEs, are feeling the heat due to the COVID-19 pandemic with manufacturing coming to a grinding halt and traditional marketing channels like meeting clients one-on-one is absolutely not an option now.

Challenges Faced by Indian Small Businesses

Moreover, liquidity crunch, non-availability of labour, etc., are other issues which SMEs are now facing and will continue to face for some time now. With little or no cash reserves, small businesses are badly hit and will incur huge losses until and unless the government announces some stimulus packages to support them.

The best way forward now during these times is SMEs along with business continuity and resilience should also focus on brand building, growth, and business improvement. Businesses will need to understand that social distancing, and work from home will be the new normal. Meeting clients face-to-face, traveling within the country and beyond the borders will be very difficult now.

Opportunity to Market / Sell Products Digitally

Having said that these challenges that SMEs are facing now also brings to fore a plethora of opportunities to adjust their operations by moving from traditional to Digital mediums to market and sell their products.

SMEs will have to shun old methods of connecting with buyers and start thinking more strategically by investing both time and resources on digital and new-age technologies. Sooner small businesses understand that the need of the hour is digitization to unlock their maximum potential, better it will be for them to remain competitive post-COVID-19.

Digital Transformation is a Necessity- Not an Option.

So whether it is manufacturing, logistics, finance, human resources, time is now to rely more and use technology and digital mediums to sustain and reach to the shores safely through the troubled waters. Businesses now have to see digital transformation as a necessity rather than an additional burden on their finances. With uncertainty ruling as to when the pandemic is likely to end, it’s time to take the bull by the horns. The mantra should be to evolve and innovate.

What is Digital Transformation and why is it a must in current times?

Digitalization is the replacement of conventional technologies or methods with ICT-based technologies. For instance, if a company used to store documents on paper, with digitalization, the documents can be stored and managed electronically. New technologies allow digitizing every part of the production cycle and every part of the company and its functions. To this purpose, the market offers new industrial controllers, new Fieldbus technologies, new software, etc.

Digital Marketing – A Must For Small & Medium Businesses

Digital marketing has proved to be a cost-effective method for SMEs to promote and grow your business online and has made a huge impact in terms of productivity. Businesses are able to build brands’ popularity, promote their products & services globally at low costs. Tools like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Content Marketing, Social Media marketing helps in reaching targeted audiences globally.

Benefits of Digitalization

With digitization, SMEs will be capable of diversifying consumer segments in a short period compared to offline businesses by increasing their revenue, providing access to higher customer base, increasing operational efficiency, and also enhancing their customer experiences.

• Increasing revenue: The main objective of any business is revenue. The higher the revenue, the higher the growth. According to a KPMG report, SMEs that have adopted technology showed high profitability and profits of online businesses grew by 19% yearly as compared to 10% for offline businesses.
• Providing access to higher customer base: Offline businesses have limited presence. Taking business online will help in increasing your customer base globally. SMEs are able to compete with some of the big enterprises. Online presence gives you remarkable opportunities to grow your business both in local and global markets.
• Increasing operational efficiency: According to a report, digital technologies can reduce operational costs for SMEs by 20 to 30 percent. They can reduce their operational expenditure by investing in technologies like Cloud computing, Supply Chain management solutions, and by other IT tools and techniques.
• Enhancing customer experience: Business intelligence and data analytics can help SMEs to understand the behaviour of the customer. With those insights, SMEs can analyze and know a lot more about the customers’ needs and can also design the right product that meets their requirements.