E-commerce helped MSMEs mitigated pandemic impact: Alibaba

By:
On:
In: Technology
Tagged: , , ,

  • Majoarity of MSMEs saw sales decrease; sales dropped by as much as 40%

  • Survival price for MSMEs is usually 7% points increased in regions along with e-commerce

E-commerce helped MSMEs mitigated pandemic impact: Alibaba Micro small and medium corporations (MSMEs) that employed e-commerce survived the onslaught of the outbreak better than those who did not, according to a report simply by Alibaba. com.

In a declaration, the e-commerce participant, together with its resarch arm, AliResearch Company, have co-published a written report titled “Challenges, Reactions, and Transformation associated with MSMEs in the Post-Pandemic Era”.  

The research exposed that the survival rate of MSMEs is definitely 7 percentage points higher in the locations with the highest e-commerce penetration than in individuals with the lowest.

Additionally , the economic downturn was less severe in regions with higher e-commerce transmission rates.

Andrew Zheng, vice-president of Alibaba. com, said the pandemic has changed global industry forever.  

“There is no denying that businesses and individuals possess suffered tremendously.

“However, the particular creativity and genius that MSMEs possess put into action to conquer the many hurdles developed by the pandemic are nothing short of amazing.

“E-commerce may have served like a survival mechanism through the pandemic, but moving forward, it will remain a very important tool for global trade, ” mentioned Zheng.

He added that social selling, live commerce, virtual trade shows, and request for quotation marketplaces allow sellers to get creative in how they reach their audiences and make it easier for them to match their ideal clients.  

Through digitalisation, MSMEs can also easily access insights related to Traffic, demand forecasting, along with other key analytics that empower them to make better decisions for their companies, he said.

Hongbin Gao, vice-president of Alibaba group and mind of AliResearch Start, said the company acknowledges that MSMEs are not only critical economic players but their health and wealth are also critical to some full and lasting global economic recovery.  

“Consequently, we have launched this report to help return MSMEs towards the center stage and assist in broader and more practical discussions about supporting MSMEs and equipping them for better economic impact, ” he added.  

Other key findings within the report include:

  • The particular pandemic took the biggest toll on smaller MSMEs and this had been to be expected since many smaller businesses failed to have the resources or infrastructure to roll with the punches associated with repeated shutdowns, nearby restrictions, shortages along with other issues caused by the particular pandemic;

  • Less than a quarter of MSMEs escaped the particular negative effects of the pandemic, with only 23. 5% of them not suffering from a decline in sales while two-thirds of MSMEs had business head to 40%;

  • In Southeast Asian countries, MSMEs account for 97% of all businesses in the area and employ 67% of the working populace. For some countries, company continuation would remain grim if lockdowns persisted with 49%, 52% and 61% of MSMEs in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, respectively, indicating they were expected to turn off.   Meanwhile, 90% of MSMEs within Thailand anticipated an enormous loss of revenue.

Despite the grim outlook, Alibaba said the potential for market expansion remains massive for Asia-Pacific, however, the report mentioned.  

For example , Vietnam’s high-potential regional e-commerce marketplace has grown 24 instances in the past six many years and is expected to achieve USD234 billion (RM1 trillion) by 2025 (up from USD5 billion (RM22 billion) in 2015).  

This added that electronic transformation has proved to be a lifeline to many MSMEs during the pandemic, by reducing their costs, providing well-timed access to information, enhancing workflows, and assisting them expand in to new markets.  

In Thailand, about 40% of MSMEs surveyed shared that platform companies like Alibaba. com could provide favoured policies to improve efficiency of operating, it said.

Their second-most form of support required was for government authorities or institutes to roll out new foreign trade stimulus, with around 30% reflecting this, the report added.

However , the report also revealed a significant space in the adoption of digital strategies between smaller and larger enterprises.  

It mentioned smaller enterprises had been found to have decrease adoption of sophisticated digital technologies plus tended to digitalise only general management and marketing features, neglecting aspects including enterprise resource preparing, customer relationship administration and big data, comparatively speaking.